WP8 Newbie Tips

[HaibaneReki]

Yeah, sending voice notes is kewl as well. My wife loves getting them from me, but she's still on Trophy, so she can't send.

too bad MMS are 10 times more expensive than SMS where I live..

 

[nks14]

removed

 

[msdugn]

UNLESS YOU HAVE A TIP OR DISCOVERY TO SHARE - PLEASE CONSIDER STARTING A NEW THREAD

This thread is for new discoveries or tips you find useful and want to share with others. The entire forum is full of threads asking a particular question. Please consider creating a new thread to ask your question - not posting it here where we're all looking to share WP8 tips.

Thank you.

 

[Snoke]

You don't shut down Windows Phone apps. They simply go dormant. Depending on the amount of free memory on your device, by the time the 6th or 7th app is loaded, the least-used app is closed by the phone operating system.

Some people believe that if you repeatedly press the back button to get out of an app, that closes it, but that's not true. Pressing the back button to exit an app (vs. simply hitting the Windows button to go back to the home screen), just clobbers your ability to easily scroll through and return to previously-opened apps.

Just so I sure. These apps let open to get to easy, don't cause battery drain ?

 

[spyderzWPC]

simple one I didn't see on here, if you want to see what services are active or their signal.
aka wifi, cell signal, location, Bluetooth

at anytime just tap at the top of your screen near the time and the info will display again, this info goes to auto hide when you have apps open.

 

[msdugn]

Just so I sure. These apps let open to get to easy, don't cause battery drain ?

There is an infinitesimal amount of power used for all things. But unless one of these apps is illuminating the screen (impossible while they're dormant) or chewing through cellular or Wi-Fi bandwidth (which they can do even when not on-screen), no. They don't contribute to battery drain.

 

[meandu229]

Hi Guys I just noticed that if your playing a game via kids center(Games center for me) the search button is disabled, this is great is some games as it lets you rest your thumb there,, just thought id give a shout

 

[Blkacesvf41]

While in the calendar app and looking at the entire month, swiping upwards will take you to the next month. However, there's a trick to go backwards in months. You have to swipe downwards but in a diagonal way. Either from top right to lower left, or from top left to lower right.

 

[absonj]

I never used it in WP7, never figured I'd need it... Now I'm hearing of ways to use it, and Verizon took it away. BOO!

I don't understand why everyone is saying Verizon took away group texting. When I created my group, right below all thier names is the "Text" line with "everyone" right below it. When I select that, it texts everyone in my group.

 

[philpeeps]

I don't understand why everyone is saying Verizon took away group texting. When I created my group, right below all thier names is the "Text" line with "everyone" right below it. When I select that, it texts everyone in my group.

Say you have 5 people in your Group. Your method sends out 5 SMS messages to individual recipients. Replies to that message are not seen by other recipients, only you.

Group texting as people are referring to it here utilizes MMS and supports multiple recipients. Those recipients are retained with the message sent to the 5 people in the group so replies to the original message are sent to all people in the original message. Think of it as an email sent to 5 people with replies using the reply to all function. So if you are coordinating dinner with 5 friends, you can send 5 messages keeping everyone informed of the details and changes instead of 25.

 

[msdugn]

I don't understand why everyone is saying Verizon took away group texting. When I created my group, right below all thier names is the "Text" line with "everyone" right below it. When I select that, it texts everyone in my group.

UNLESS YOU HAVE A TIP OR DISCOVERY TO SHARE - PLEASE CONSIDER STARTING A NEW THREAD

This thread is for new discoveries or tips you find useful and want to share with others. The entire forum is full of threads asking a particular question. Please consider creating a new thread to ask your question - not posting it here where we're all looking to share WP8 tips.

Thank you.

 

[jojotherider]

My HTC Trophy gave up the ghost yesterday and now I'm on to WP8. Here's one that I found awesome and was complaining about it not being in WP7 to my friends (and maybe it was there but I missed it ).

Find on Page in IE!!!

When viewing a webpage in IE you can now search for text. Simply tap on the ... at the bottom of the page and you'll find an option for 'find on page'. You may have to scroll down for it. Tap and go find the text you're looking for!

 

[crav4speed]

My HTC Trophy gave up the ghost yesterday and now I'm on to WP8. Here's one that I found awesome and was complaining about it not being in WP7 to my friends (and maybe it was there but I missed it ).

Find on Page in IE!!!

When viewing a webpage in IE you can now search for text. Simply tap on the ... at the bottom of the page and you'll find an option for 'find on page'. You may have to scroll down for it. Tap and go find the text you're looking for!

Actually, Find on Page was available in WP7.0 from the very beginning, as was Forward. MS removed both in the Mango update and that was very disappointing.

It's good to finally have Find on Page back but I really do miss Forward for those times when the Back button gets hit by mistake.

 

[Vikram Dinesh]

Looks like nobody has noticed this neat feature till now. I discovered it by accident also.

I have a Bluetooth head unit in my car and my phone is paired with it. If the phone is connected to the head unit via Bluetooth and the phone is set to silent mode. When a call comes in, the phone actually rings even though it is on silent mode. Well it's a different matter that I can notice the call because the music pauses but good to know the phone will also let you know about the call.

This feature works on both the HTC 8X and the Lumia 920. Tried and tested.

 

[ammarmalik2011]

I made a thread regarding this recently (it's locked) and basically everyone said you can purchase apps from any market place using any credit card.

Well I have a L920 in my hand. I live in Pakistan (no marketplace worth using here) so I switched to Australia region. It now shows the Aussie marketplace. When I try to buy an app, and add payment method, choose credit card, the country 'Australia' is 'hard coded' and I can't change it. Obviously my credit card has a Pakistan address so I cant very well have Australia listed as country. Similarly if I choose USA it will hard code USA as the country.

How do you people do it then? Especially the ones who said they can do it easily :/

 

[tjecco]

-Listens to music and displays the name.
This feature is accessed by the following:
1) From Home screen, press the SEARCH (bing) button on your phone.
2) On the bing screen, press the musical note icon.
3) Let it listen and it will find the song for you.

I Had this option but i don't see it anymore

Wonder what happened to it

 

[drankurn]

Press and drag from number key to select a single number or punctuation instead of toggling the keyboard to the number layout.

can someone explain this a bit more, It's not working for me.

 

[philpeeps]

can someone explain this a bit more, It's not working for me.

Instead of just pressing the "&123" key to switch the keyboard to numbers and symbols, try pressing the "&123" key and without releasing it, dragging your finger on the screen up to the number/symbol you want, then releasing. Once you release, it will insert the number/symbol you selected and automatically switch right back to the letters on the keyboard.

 

[rajkumr]

can someone explain this a bit more, It's not working for me.

whenever you want to type any numbers or the punctuation or special characters, instead of tapping the numbers mode in the keyboard, just press and drag from the numbers mode key to whichever key you want to press and release your finger. The keyboard will automatically switch back to the alphabet mode.

Say you want to add a question mark to the end, press and hold the numbers mode key and you will notice the layout change, without releasing your finger drag it to the ? Key and release your finger when you see the ? Highlighted above tour finger.

Its useful when there are a lot of single digit or punctuations involved when typing. But if you have a string of numbers its easier to just change the layout by a tap to the number modes key..

Hope this helps you to understand.

 

[Blkacesvf41]

whenever you want to type any numbers or the punctuation or special characters, instead of tapping the numbers mode in the keyboard, just press and drag from the numbers mode key to whichever key you want to press and release your finger. The keyboard will automatically switch back to the alphabet mode.

Say you want to add a question mark to the end, press and hold the numbers mode key and you will notice the layout change, without releasing your finger drag it to the ? Key and release your finger when you see the ? Highlighted above tour finger.

Its useful when there are a lot of single digit or punctuations involved when typing. But if you have a string of numbers its easier to just change the layout by a tap to the number modes key..

Hope this helps you to understand.

Thanks for that. Very nice feature.