Topic outline

• Android phone:
  System settings

  This short, animated course looks at where to find the main settings for your Android phone, and how to adjust the time, date and ringtones.

  Watch our animation by pressing the Play button below, or click on the handy Chapters icon in the video playbar to go straight to the information you want to see, such as how to:

  1. change sound settings
  2. choose your ringtone and text tone
  3. adjust system sounds
  4. change the date and time.

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  • Transcript

    View Android phone: System settings transcript.

    Welcome to the 'Android phone: System settings' course. You'll learn how to change some of the settings on your Android phone to make it work just the way you like. There are many types of Android phones. If your Android phone is a different model to the one shown in this demonstration the steps might be slightly different but you can still follow along.

    Starting from the Home screen. swipe up from the bottom of the screen to view the Apps screen. Look for the Settings app which looks like a cog wheel. Tap on it to open the Settings app. Scroll down until you see Sounds and vibration and tap on it to see some options. Now tap Volume to see some of the different ways that your phone makes sounds. You can control the volume of each type of sound using the sliders. The Ringtone slider controls how loudly your phone rings when you receive a call. Media controls the loudness of the playback of music and video.

    Notifications controls the loudness of all notifications, such as text messages. And System controls the loudness of many other sounds your phone makes. You can choose to make some of these sounds louder than others. You may want phone calls and text messages to be louder than other types of sounds, for example. You can slide your finger on a control to the right to increase volume and to the left to decrease volume. Once you're happy with the volume level for each option, tap the Back arrow at the top left of the screen to return to the Sounds and vibration menu.

    Now tap Ringtone to change the sound your phone makes when you receive a call. A list of ring tones will appear. Scroll through the list and tap an option to play it. When you've found one you like, tap the Back arrow to set it and return to the Sounds and vibration menu. Next tap Notification sound to change the sound that plays when you receive a notification such as a text message. Listen to a few options. When you find one you like tap the Back arrow at the top left to set it. From the Sounds and vibration menu, scroll down until you see System sound/vibration control and tap it. This screen allows you to turn off certain system sounds such as the sounds your phone makes when you tap the keyboard, lock the phone or dial a phone number. If you don't want your phone to make any sounds when you lock or unlock the screen, look for the switch next to Screen lock/unlock. To turn this setting off, tap the switch and the circle will move to the left and become grey. You can also turn off the sounds that your phone makes when you tap its keyboard. Tap the switch next to the keyboard option to turn this sound off too. When you've updated these settings to suit you, tap the Back arrow to return to the main settings menu. From the main Settings menu, scroll down until you see General management. Tap it to find the settings for Date and time. The Date and time option should be near the top of the General management screen, tap on it. At the top of the Date and time screen, look for Automatic date and time. If the switch next to it is blue your phone automatically adjusts for daylight savings and changes time zones when you travel. You should leave this turned on but for this demonstration we'll turn it off to show you how to manually adjust the time and date. To turn it off, tap the blue switch so it moves to the left and becomes grey.

    To change the time, tap on the blue text under Set time. A pop up appears and you can slide the numbers up and down to change the current time. Tap Done to set it and return to the Date and time screen. To change the date, tap Set date and a calendar will appear. You can tap the arrows to go to a different month in the calendar and tap a day to choose it. If you are manually setting the time and date you might also want to manually set the time zone. Tap the switch next to Automatic time zone to turn this setting off. A new option, Select time zone, will appear underneath. Tap this to open the Select time zone screen and then tap Time zone. A list of cities will appear. Tap the name of your nearest capital to set the time zone. Now tap the Back arrow to return to the Date and time screen. As mentioned earlier, allowing your phone to automatically update the date and time is a useful feature. So for this demonstration, we'll tap the switch next to Automatic date and time to turn this feature back on. When you are done, swipe up from the bottom of the screen to return to the Home screen. You've now completed the course and learned how to adjust time, date, and some of the sound settings on your Android smartphone. If you are unsure about any steps, you can rewind the video or click the chapter headings to jump to the start of a chapter. If you are ready to move on there are many other courses to explore on Be Connected.