In order to download the latest version of WhatsApp, you need to have a smartphone running Android version 2.1 (by the end of 2016, Android 2.1 and 2.2 will no longer be supported) or higher. You can check your phone's current Android version in Settings > About Phone.
If you're trying to install the WhatsApp app from the WhatsApp website, you'll need to have Unknown Sources enabled in your security settings. Go to Settings > Security > Unknown Sources to activate it.
I didn't get my activation code
If the installation went smoothly, but the automatically generated message with your activation code never comes through, first ensure you entered your number correctly. Also double check that you chose the right country from the drop-down list. This is the country your phone number is from, not necessarily the country you reside in.
If you still do not receive the code, try requesting a voice call. This way you will have the code read to you by a computer over the phone.
Remember, you have to have a SIM card to register for WhatsApp. Also, you can only use one device per phone number.
With the advancement of mobile devices, editing video has become easier as you can now edit your video on the go. If you use an Android phone or tablet and wanting to play around with your videos, then check out our list of the 5 best Android video editing apps below. The apps in our list will give you the features that you need to enhance your videos without paying a penny and you can use them wherever you are. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned professional, we’ve got you covered.
Magisto Video Editor & Maker Magisto is one of the most popular and widely used video editing app on Android smartphones and tablets. This app offers an easy way to make your own video. All you have to do is add your video clip, select your desired theme and soundtrack, and the app will do the work for you. It will automatically turns your video clips into awesome edited movies with your choice of theme and music.
Magisto is the perfect app for the beginners as it does not require much video-editing skills to use. If you are looking for a dynamic and professional video editing tool then the Magisto Video editor is the best choice for you.
VideoShow: Video Editor & Maker VideoShow is one of the best video editing apps for Android. This app comes with all the basic video editing features such as merge videos, trimming, add music, add texts, add filters, etc.
Like many video editing apps, Video Show also allows users to add cute stickers, images and themes to beautify your videos. Once you have edited your video, it allows you to share the edited videos on social networks like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Line, etc.
The best things of the app is that it’s completely free and you can edit unlimited videos without any watermarks.
KineMaster – Pro Video Editor KineMaster is a free Android video editing app that features a multi-track video timeline that gives you the ability to drag and drop content as you wish. The app is also equipped with a variety of transition effects, as well as visual and audio effects, speed controls and many more.
You can import multimedia files from your phone or record on the spot and take advantage of the KineMaster’s editing tools and transition effects to edit each clip.
Wevideo Video Editor WeVideo is another great tool for editing video on Android. This app allows you to create amazing movies and slideshows, and share them on your social sharing sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
You can record video with the app or use existing videos, trim, add a soundtrack, and select a style for transitions, effects, overlays and captions. Videos can be rendered on your phone, or through the cloud.
You will be able to arrange and merge clips to tell a complete story in no time at all. It performs well on large smartphone (phablet) and tablet as well.
VivaVideo: Free Video Editor VivaVideo is a simple but powerful video editor for Android. It comes with easy-to-use professional editing tools which allows you to trim and merge video clips in storyboard editing. You can enhance your videos with various texts, FX, stickers, music, filters, transitions and live dubbing.
VivaVideo also has built-in Photo Movie Maker feature that lets you make slideshows using available photos from your phone’s gallery. All of your edited works can be instant previewed in WYSIWYG way.
So, these are some of the best Android video editing apps which you can download for free on your smartphones or tablets. If you have any favorite video editor please feel free to share with us in the comments below.
As we all know WhatsApp is know showing the blue check marks which lets senders know the recipient has read the message. This particular feature has an advantage as well as disadvantage.
The advantage is you will know whether the receiver has read the message or not. But at the same time, the disadvantage is if you do not reply to the sender right away, the sender may feel awkward and will assume that you have ignored them.
To avoid such awkward situations, here are few simple methods you can use to read WhatsAppmessages without alerting the sender’s attention to their action by triggering the blue ticks.
1. Disable Read Receipts Option
Disabling “Read receipts” option is the probably the easiest method to read a Whatsappmessage without notifying the sender. By doing so, you’ll disable the ability of WhatsApp to show blue ticks to the sender that tells them that you’ve read their message. But the downside is that you will not be able to see the double blue check marks when someone has read your message as well. Here’s how to disable it.
Open WhatsApp and go to the ‘Settings’ menu
Tap on ‘Accounts’ and then on ‘Privacy’.
Untick the ‘Read Receipts’ option
2. Peep from the Notification Bar
This is another simple method to read WhatsApp message without alerting the sender. Whenever you get a message on WhatsApp, it shows a notification on your notification bar. Simply swipe down the notification area from the top of the screen and you can easily read the complete or partial message from the notification bar without opening the app. The blue ticks show only when you open the app to read messages.
3. Turn Off WiFi/ Mobile Data Connection
Once you get a message don’t open the app immediately, turn off the WiFi or mobile data and this will take WhatsApp offline. Now go ahead and read the message and you won’t alert the sender since you’ll be reading the message from app cache. To ensure you don’t blow your cover make sure to close WhatsApp app before turning off your WiFi/ mobile data connection.
4. Place WhatsApp Widget to Your Home Screen
If you don’t want to go the extreme length of turning off all your phone’s connectivity. You can place WhatsApp widget on your home screen to read the message at a glance. Since reading message via widget doesn’t open the app so you can keep the blue ticks from showing up. You can even reply to other messages without having to send read receipts to the sender you wish to ignore. But the problem of this method is you can see text messages and emoticons only, images, videos, and voice notes are not supported.
To add the WhatsApp widget to your home screen, tap and hold on a clear area of the screen, then choose Widgets. Keep swiping until you find WhatsApp, tap and hold on the WhatsAppwidget, then drag it to where you want it to appear on your home screen.
You could optimize your Android audio experience through the settings. Not all Android UIs have this feature, however, so it won't work for everyone. If your device has it, the procedure is easy, though. And once you've done it for the first time you will be able to quickly enhance your audio settings in the future.
For TouchWiz, you need to plug in whichever audio device you want to use (if you're using one). Then, hop into yourSettings and tap Sound. From there hit Audio settings. You should have a series of options to enhance your audio experience.
MIUI from Xiaomi, has an enhancer for headphones. Just toggle it on and pick the type you're using. You should have the choice between in-ear and normal headphones.
Xperia UI allows you use the ClearAudio setting and has an equalizer. You can get to it through the settings. With Sense UI you can toggle BoomSound but there's really no reason to turn it off, as the audio is terrible without it on. You can't optimize your audio settings from Oxygen, Optimus or Stock Android.
You have the option of replacing the stock music app with one that includes more audio control. We recommend Poweramp or Equalizer+. Both are jam-packed with audio tweaks, presets, bass boost and more. Equalizer+ provides a five-band EQ, while Poweramp offers a 10-band EQ for serious tuning. You'll have to pay a couple of bucks to access all the best features but once you do you'll never look back.
The default audio controls on most phones, with the exception of Sony phones and the OnePlus 2, are not exactly comprehensive. Some include a basic EQ but it often only works within the default music app and provides no control over audio not played through the music player.
So hit the Play Store and get yourself a decent EQ. We can recommend both Music Volume EQ and Bass Booster.
4. Know your speaker placement
It may seem silly, but the first thing you need to know is where the sound is coming from on your smartphone. Lots of phones have twin speaker grills, but often only one of them produces any sound. If your speaker is blocked then the sound quality will be low or non-existent.
Test out where your sound is coming from by playing some tunes and covering the various holes on your phone until you know exactly where the audio is coming from. There shouldn't be too many places for a speaker to hide and, once you've found them, you can get started on finding the problem.
Once you know whether your speakers are front-facing, bottom-mounted or on the back, you can make more intelligent decisions about how to position your smartphone to give speakers the best chance to shine. Don't block them when holding your phone (a common mistake when gaming with bottom-mounted speakers) and point the speakers towards you, not away from you.
5. Check if your case is blocking a speaker
If your phone has a protective case or cover, it will affect the quality of the sound you get from the speakers. All those vibrations coming from inside your phone will be muffled by the additional layer of plastic or rubber that the manufacturer won't have taken into account when designing its speaker system.
Not all case makers understand the subtleties of your device. Some cases block essential parts of the phone like the audio jack, microphone or speaker. Before you buy a case be sure that you check to see that it won't block anything.
adphones
The simple fact is that most smartphone speakers are simply not good enough to get decent sound quality out of, even with a fancy music app or EQ. This is where a decent pair of headphones can help (some audio settings in your phone won't even work without headphones plugged in).
Check out our list of the best headphones and see how much of a difference a serious set of headphones can make to your smartphone audio.
7. Boost speaker volume
If you are rooted, there are plenty of app options out there that can bypass the max volume of the Android system with a few simple tweaks. Check out our ultimate guide on how to root Android for more details. If you don't want to root your phone or simply aren't convinced by the distortions that most volume-booster apps in the Play Store end up producing, then there are still a few things you can do.
Get to know a little about sound waves. If you position your phone in a corner and fire the speaker output towards it, you'll get a louder, 'bassier' reverberation than if it was just shooting out into the room. The same logic applies to any object: put your phone in a box, against a bowl or in a glass (empty, of course) and you might be amazed to hear how much louder your speaker suddenly is.
How do you improve sound quality on your phone? Have you found any reliable volume booster apps? Let us know in the comments.
The first place to start when trying to take a good picture is to clean your smartphone's camera lens. These frequently become dirty and the results will be a blurry image. Every time you go to take a picture, give the lens a quick wipe on your T-shirt first to sweep away any grime.
2. Use touch-to-capture or volume shutter for selfies
When shooting a classic selfie, it's all-too-easy to drop your phone when attempting to press the capture button. By enabling touch-to-capture, it's hard to miss the trigger: it becomes the whole screen.
Alternatively, depending on which is your preferred hand, it may be easier to reach the volume controls. This option isn't available on every device, but if it's on your handset you should find it in the settings menu under volume control function, or use volume control as.
3. Never miss a shot with quick-launch
Many Android smartphones have a shortcut to launch the camera, rather than entering the dedicated app. The native Android solution to this is a camera icon located at the bottom of the lockscreen which you can swipe but on some devices all you need to do is double-tap the power/lock button.
On later Samsung phones, a double-tap on the home button will do the trick. These shortcuts are there to help you access the camera as quickly as possible. Though they won't guarantee your pictures will be better, they could help you capture a shot you would normally miss.
4. Shoot in landscape
We have become accustomed to a 16:9 media format and as a consequence, pictures shot in portrait just tend to look awkward now. Unless there is an important reason that you would need a taller shot (like, say, shooting a picture of theFernsehturm from a close distance), pictures are almost always better in landscape.
5. Avoid using the flash (most of the time)
Even on a DSLR camera, the flash function is generally best saved for emergencies. If you can use natural light to illuminate your picture, you always should, because you want your pictures to look natural, don't you?
There is a time and a place for the LED flash on smartphone cameras, but because it tends to be located very close to the lens, it can have a nasty glaring effect. If natural light isn't quite enough, increase the exposure value (EV) and ISO on your camera. Bear in mind that increasing ISO will also increase the graininess or 'noise' in your pictures.
6. Don't use digital zoom
Digital zoom is notorious for destroying smartphone photos. Unless your camera has an optical zoom, where the camera lens actually protrudes out of your device (like the actually-not-great Samsung Galaxy K Zoom), all zooming does is enlarge and crop the picture.
"Can't I just do that after I've taken the photo?" I hear you ask. Well, yes, you can – that's the point! Digital zoom merely narrows the editing options for your picture. Take fully zoomed-out photos, then crop them manually if you want to.
7. Check details of your best, worst and Auto photos
We all have some photos that come out incredibly well and others that are pretty awful. Whenever you take either a great or terrible photo, check the 'Details' of the photo to see what ISO, exposure time and aperture it had.
This way, you'll slowly learn which settings on your smartphone work best with which light conditions. This is particularly useful for 'Auto' photos, so you can get a feel for the settings your camera resorts to by default and adjust them accordingly.
8. Use HDR mode
HDR is a great mode for taking photos of stationary objects, as long as you have steady hands. HDR (high dynamic range) mode ensures that the lighting and shadows in the photo are evenly exposed. This is particularly useful for photos with high contrast.
HDR mode takes two or more pictures of varying exposures almost simultaneously, then combines the best and brightest bits of both into one photo. You need to keep the camera super-steady, otherwise, your photo will come out blurred.
9. Use the post-processing filters
There are plenty of people out there who pour scorn onto all the lovely filters you can enhance your photos with. But for casual smartphone photographers, those retro, black-and-white, Windmere, Islandia, and other filters can really add character to a photo. Most Android smartphones come with a great selection of filters, but if you're running a bit short, try Pixlr (formerly Pixlr Express) for a great selection.
10. The 'reflective sunglasses' trick
If you have a pair of sunglasses with a reflective coating on the lens, you can use them to capture a good perspective for your shots, like in the example below. The light source should always be reflected off the lens to help you better capture the scene or action that's in your view. 11. Make one subject appear several times in a Panorama shot
The Google Camera app has been available in the Play Store for some time now, so anyone running Android 4.4 KitKat or higher can grab it for their Android device. In the app, you can use the Panorama function to pan horizontally across a scene and capture an entire landscape.
For a spooky effect, get the subject of your panorama shot to move with the camera so that they appear more than once in the image. The key to making this work is holding the camera steady while you're also moving the subject, so it's good to have someone helping you.
12. The rule of thirds
This is one of the simplest rules for photography, yet it's invaluable for making your photo compositions look great. The idea is that our eyes are naturally attracted to images that are divided into thirds, where the subject of the photo is slightly off-centre.
To help you achieve this, most smartphone cameras let you use a grid of two horizontal and two vertical lines when taking photos. The subject of your photo should be at one of the four intersections of these lines to theoretically get the most visually pleasing photo. Give it a go!
13. Augmented color reality
Colorify Augmented Reality is a fairly unknown app in the Google Play Store. With it, you can change the color of a garment or object to anything you want. The more contrast in the photo, the better it works.
It's also worth noting that Colorify will replace the color on all objects in the photo from the same palette, as can be seen in our example photo below, where the app changed the color of the denim as well as the trainer.
14. Tiny Planet
This is one of the cooler photo-editing tricks. You can turn your panoramic photos into globes, in an effect known as Tiny Planet. We recommend two apps that you can use to accomplish this effect.
The first one, Tiny Planet FX, isn’t free, but has some spectacular options for customizing the effect. The second app, Small Planet, is free. It takes a little fiddling around in order to get used to it, but once you do, you can create some truly spectacular snaps.
Here’s a tip on how to make your Android device run a bit smoother: disable its animations. You will need to have access to Developer Options which can be found under Settings or About device.
Note: For some phones, you may need to go to Build number and tap on it repeatedly until you see "You are now a developer!". Developer options are now enabled.
Under enabled Developer options, look for Window animation scale,Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. Then, turn them off (disable) them one at a time.
Once you have a lot of apps installed, your homescreen might be filled with app shortcuts. Unlike the app drawer, the apps on your home screen are not arranged alphabetically. So, you might want to create some folders for your homescreen shortcuts.
Assuming you have more than a handful of shortcuts already on your homescreen, long press on any of the shortcuts and drag it onto another shortcut.
A circle should now appear around the apps, indicating that a folder has been created.
By tapping on the newly created folder, a mini window will pop up with your apps in it.
You can drag and drop additional apps into the folder if you like. You can also rename the folder by tapping on the text area at the bottom of the mini window.
Prefer to read through app permissions and manually pick which app updates to adopt? You can, but first you need to disable your automatic app updates. Here are the steps:
Open Play Store and head over to Settings.
Tap on Auto-update apps.
Choose Do not auto-update apps.
If you want to enable the auto updates, follow the same path and choose Auto-update apps at any time or via Wi-Fi (available for certain Android devices only).
To update your apps manually, just open Play Store, and on the main page swipe in from the left and tap on My apps. You can tap on apps with pending updates and update them manually, or if you like to update them all at once, just tap on Update All.
