Darkoshi

Why did the Messages app on this phone update itself, changing how all the emojis look? I rarely select to update it due to things like this. But maybe I did unwisely select it last time, sigh. And then a few days later it finally applies the changes.

Now I see (what I suspected before but did not know for sure) that the emojis I send aren't necessarily what the other person receives.

Dang, I sent a picture of a giraffe from the side, showing its long neck. Now my phone shows it as only a picture of a giraffe's head, head-on. Totally NOT equivalent! ::SMH::

Update, later that day:
I didn't change anything, but now the emojis are back to how they were before. Weird.

I normally use the Open Camera app, but had a problem with it today [ "Failed to save photo"; this may have been due to an app update. In the camera settings I had to reselect the path for where to save the photos, and then it worked ok again.]

So in the meantime, I used the stock camera app instead.

In an older version of the stock camera, the brightness was controlled by dragging clockwise or counter-clockwise around the edge of the circle icon.

In this version of the camera app, the zoom slider appears on the left side of the screen and the brightness control appears on the right side.

I had trouble figuring out how to use those controls. Half of the time when I tried to change the zoom, it instead changed the brightness level, and vice versa. And the brightness level control didn't make sense to me.

The "Tutorial" in the Camera Settings only displays one screen, which is not much help.

I did a web search for a tutorial, but did not find any. (How can there not be any instructions for how to use the camera? Why do app makers, even Google apparently, think people don't need instructions for anything anymore? )

Anyway, by playing around with the app some more, I figured out the following. Maybe this will help someone else if they do a search. Or maybe it will help me if I forget how it works again.

You can zoom either by pinching with 2 fingers or by sliding with one finger up & down. That brings up the zoom slider on the left side of the screen.

The brightness level changes automatically based on where you drag the double-circle icon.

When you move that double circle icon, it also displays the brightness level control on the right side. (Or if it doesn't, drag the double circle to the right edge, and that should bring it up.)

If you slide up on the brightness control, that makes it brighter. Down makes it darker.
If you slide it above the center (zero) point, the amount selected above zero is highlighted in yellow.
If you slide it below the center (zero) point, the amount selected below zero is highlighted in yellow.

Privacy checkup: Limit Ad Tracking up 216% on iOS, but down 85% on Android (March 2020)

That makes sense as I didn't even know there was such a setting in Android.
It is under Settings - Google - Ads - "Opt out of Ads Personalization".

There is also an option on that page to "Reset advertising ID". The Google Advertising ID (GAID), from what I understand, is a way for advertisers to track your ad-related activity across different apps.

That said, I'm leaving the personalization on for now, as I use very few apps with ads, and don't recall being annoyed by any at the moment.

I would like it if my phone's Contacts app had an option for marking phone numbers as obsolete. Once a number is marked as obsolete, it should no longer be listed in the main area, or if still shown there, at least be positioned at the bottom of the list.

Obsolete numbers should not be deleted; they should remain associated with the Contact, so that the Contact's name would still be shown for the old phone number in the Call History and Messages pages.

Do any of you know of a Contacts app that has this functionality?

It would also be nice if each phone number had date attributes, like "date added" and "date marked obsolete", so you could list them by date

The work-around I'm using at the moment is to label the old phone numbers as "obsolete", and to label new phone numbers with the date I add them. But this way, the obsolete ones are displayed at the top of the list, and new ones at the bottom. I also have to tap an extra time, on "See all", for the newer ones to be displayed, as by default only the first 2 are displayed.

.

I'm thinking I may be able to edit the numbers to display like I want by exporting the Contacts to my computer, manually editing the file, and re-importing them. I may try that. But then I'd have to do that each time the numbers change.

I got a text: "Hey, is this still [.... .....]'s number?"

I typed a reply saying No, and that I've had this number for 12 years, so maybe they mis-dialed.

(Maybe it is inappropriate and old-fashioned to use the word "mis-dialed". Should one say "mis-typed" instead? But that's ambiguous. You'd need to say "mis-typed the number". So using "mis-dialed" seems simpler, even though most phones haven't had dials in a long long time.)

When I clicked to send the Reply, Android showed the message "Messages would like to send a message to 67329. This may cause charges on your mobile account".

That's when I noticed that the text hadn't come from a normal 10-digit phone number. So I clicked Cancel, and searched online for "67329". It seems to be this company: https://messagemedia.com/
Whoever sent the message must be using that company's texting service rather than sending texts from their own phone number. So it's probably a collection agency.

But still, Android's message confused me (could replying to that text cause me to get charged money? Could it be a scam?), so I looked up more info about it. Those 5 digit numbers are called "short codes", and are treated as potentially "premium SMS", which can incur extra charges. But a lot of companies use them for sending messages, and I've received texts from those kind of numbers before, without ever being charged for it.

So how does one end up getting charged? If it is really a premium SMS, can simply replying to an innocuous sounding text like the one I received subscribe you to a premium service? How could one ever be sure if it is safe to reply to such a text or not?

I've wondered about those kind of text numbers before, when watching TV programs like American Idol or what-not, that tell you to send a text to this number or that number, to vote for contestants. Or TV ads asking for donations. Or radio ads. Those may sometimes mention that there will be a charge, but I'm not sure. Is there any warning of what the exact charge will be, or confirmation that you really want to accept the charge, when you send such a text?

And is it even possible to incur such a charge or sign up for a premium service, if you're on a pre-paid phone plan? How would they charge you the money?

..

Oh, by the way.... Several web pages I found gave instructions on how to enable or disable Premium SMS (which I think is what happens when you click the "Remember my choice" checkbox on the Android warning message). But the menu selections they listed didn't match my phone (Android 7.1.1).
This is how to get to it on my phone:
Settings - Apps - [ click Gear icon at the top of the page ] - Advanced / Special Access - Premium SMS access.

My phone is annoying me. I want to disable "OK Google" detection, so that it won't listen for those trigger words; I don't want it potentially recording my voice all the time. But I don't want to completely disable microphone access for Google searches. I would like the microphone to be used *after* I click the microphone icon in the Google search box.

Yet no matter what settings I change, when my home screen is displayed (which has the search box at the top), when I say "OK Google", it still always brings up the "Listening..." screen and will then search on the next thing I say.

I've never even enabled the Google assistant; I wonder if that has something to do with it. Whenever the screens come up where one would enable it, I click to Cancel, as I don't want to give it all the permissions it asks for. It seems like maybe you have to enable the assistant in order to subsequently and effectively disable it? But that doesn't really make sense.

The phone settings screens confuse me. After clicking more than a few items deep into them, I lose track of where I came from. Some of the screens can be accessed more than one way, which adds to the confusion.

Some of the settings I've updated:

Phone Settings - Google - Search, Assistant & Voice - Voice - Voice Match
"Access with Voice Match" is disabled
"While driving" is disabled
Everything else on this page is greyed out/disabled

Google Maps - Settings - Navigation Settings - "Ok Google" detection
"While driving" is disabled

Phone Settings - Apps - (gear icon) Configure apps - Assist & Voice Input
"Assist App" - is set to None.

Phone Settings - Google - Google Account - Data & Personalization - Activity Controls
"Voice & Audio Activity" (and all the other items) are "Paused"

Did you know that you can change the voice used when search results are spoken? This setting is enabled for me, even though I haven't enabled the Assistant:
Phone Settings - Google - Search, Assistant & Voice - Google Assistant / Settings - Preferences - Assistant Voice

.

Yesterday, it was Google Maps that annoyed me. While out shopping, I tried to bring up my offline map, but couldn't as it had expired. What's the point of having an offline map, if it expires all the time so that I can't use it!? I only get reminded that it's expiring ahead of time if I go into Maps. Why should I have to re-download it every 3 months? Yes, Google provides them as a free service, so they can make their own rules. But it feels like they are taking away something from me that I downloaded fair and square. I'd be willing to pay a single time fee, to be able to keep my maps downloaded permanently, and to choose when to update them.

.

I've been wanting to switch to CyanogenMod or do something which would let me have more control over things like this. Haven't gotten around to it yet. The last thing I did was to unlock my boot loader.

.

Something else odd:
Phone Settings - Google - Connected apps
This showed "McClatchy Social Signin" as a connected app. I have no idea what that was for or where it came from, so I disconnected it.
The only other connected app listed on that screen is "Android device".

I'm ready to unlock my phone's bootloader, as the first step for rooting it. I have the unlock code, though I haven't actually used it yet. To get the code from Motorola, they make you accept a legal agreement, which states that unlocking the bootloader will void the warranty, and all kinds of other scary things, such as it may lead to DEATH. ::eep! goes hide under a rock for a bit::

That's like saying that loading custom software onto your computer could lead to death. Perhaps so, if you got some really bad software that made your CPU overheat and purposely disabled the fans and any normal safety shut-down mechanisms from working. Or various other highly unlikely things that could be imagined.

I also backed up my phone apps and contacts as well as I could, as unlocking the bootloader will delete it all. Unfortunately, some of the best backup apps can't be used unless the the phone is already rooted.

But based on some things I read, maybe I should delay rooting the phone, as it could prevent the phone from upgrading from Marshmallow to Nougat. Per this page, the Moto G4 got the Nougat update a year ago. But per this page, the Moto G4 Play (which I have), just started getting the update in February - but only the Verizon and international unlocked versions. Mine is a local unlocked version. But maybe the update will come to my phone soon too.

Oh! The whole reason I started writing this post: The word "unlockable" can mean 2 things. I keep reading it as "unable to be locked", whereas in this context it instead means "able to be unlocked".

.

Now, a note about the Android SDK Tools. The adb (Android Debug Bridge) and fastboot utilities are required for unlocking the bootloader. Most of the instructions I found tell you to download the command-line (non-Android Studio) version of the tools (which are available at the very bottom of the above page), and then to run "sdkmanager.exe" (a GUI app) to get the other tools. But that exe is no longer included in the command-line tools. Now they only include "sdkmanager.bat" which is a non-GUI version. To use this batch program to download adb & fastboot, do the following.

1. You should have the Java JDK installed (version 8 worked for me), and your JAVA_HOME environment variable should point to the JDK folder. Otherwise you'll get an error that JAVA_HOME is not defined.
2. Open a command prompt to the downloaded Android SDK's tools\bin folder.
3. Run this command to get a list of the installed and installable packages:
sdkmanager --verbose --list
4. The list should include an entry for "platform-tools". This is the one that includes adb and fastboot.
5. Run this command to install that package:
sdkmanager --verbose "platform-tools"
6. Enter "y" to accept the license agreement.
7. The \platform-tools folder will be created with adb.exe and fastboot.exe.

Or, this may be a simpler method.

More than half of the incoming calls I receive on my cell phone are spam or wrong numbers. A lot of the time they come in while my phone is in silent mode during the daytime at work, so I don't notice them til later. They never leave a message. During the last month or so, I've stopped answering calls from unknown numbers, even when I see or hear the call as it comes in.

Not many people know my cell phone number, and those people should all be in my contact list already. But there's always a chance one of them may call from a new phone number.

I considered changing my voice mail message to inform people that I don't answer calls from unknown numbers, but that I do eventually listen to my messages, and that they can leave a message. But I wondered if that was necessary. Do most people nowadays assume that other people won't answer calls from unknown numbers, anyway?

I also considered saving a short clip of absolute silence as an mp3 file, and setting that as my default ringtone. Then I could specify some other real ringtone for all of my contacts. That way I'd never have to hear the phone ringing from an unknown number.

I considered using call blocking for some of the repeat spam calls I get from the same numbers. But my phone, even though it has Android Marshmallow, doesn't have the call-blocking option.

Today while browsing through the phone settings under "Sound and Notifications", I noticed the "Do Not Disturb" options. I saw that you could add a rule which could be set to every day of the week, all day long, and that you could set it to "Priority Only". The "Priority only allows" section has options for which messages and calls are allowed - None, From Anyone, From Contacts Only, or From Starred Contacts Only. It even has a special option to allow a call through, if the same person calls twice within 15 minutes (most spammers don't do that).

Anyway, that sounded perfect. I could configure it so that my phone would only ring when people in my Contact List call me. But when I tested it out this evening, calling myself from another phone, it didn't work as expected. The phone still rang, even though the number I was calling from wasn't in my Contacts (I had temporarily deleted it).

So I read about how those settings are supposed to work, in case I was doing it wrong: Android’s Confusing "Do Not Disturb" Settings, Explained

It turns out that the Do Not Disturb rules only work when you have your phone volume turned all the way down. So rather than it being a way to configure "how to make spam calls be silent even when the volume is on", it's a way to configure "how to make real calls ring even when the volume is off". Which is not what I want. Because when I turn the volume off when I'm at work, I really don't want my phone to ring for calls from ANYBODY. People who know me, know to call me on my work phone, not my cell phone, if they really need to reach me. But with the volume off (as opposed to being in Airplane mode), I can still occasionally check to see if anyone has sent me a text or left me a message.

My working-at-work hours are irregular enough that I don't want to set any time-based rules for that either.

So I suppose it's back to the silent ringtone approach.

There are probably apps that would help, but I'd be wary of giving any app access to my Contact list.

My new cellphone has Android Marshmallow. I brought my contacts over from my old phone by exporting them to a vcf file, copying the file to my computer and then to the new SD card, and then importing them to the new phone.

One thing that surprised me is that when I clicked to add a new Contact on the new phone, I got the message "Your new contact will be synchronized with [my Gmail address]". Even after turning Sync OFF for Contacts in the Account Settings (for which I first had to *enable* sync in general, as I had it previously turned it completely off), it still gave me that message, with no option of adding the contact without synchronizing.

Now I no longer get the message - maybe because I edited one contact, and it only shows the message before you save any update. But the Add Contact screen still shows "Google Account" along with my Gmail address at the top of the screen, making it appear that the Contact belongs to the Gmail account, rather than simply belonging to the contact list on the phone, as it did on my old phone.

Logging into Gmail on the computer, under Contacts it showed all my phone contacts (which I had never added in Gmail), so it must have synced them when I originally added the Gmail account to the phone (for using the Play Store), before I turned off the auto-sync setting.

Or it is slightly possible they got synced from my old phone, and I never realized it, as I hadn't checked the contacts for that Gmail account before. I never had any reason to think my phone would be syncing my contacts to my Gmail account. But I think I had sync turned off on the old phone too.

Now I tested adding a new contact on the phone, and so far, it does not show up in Gmail on the computer. So hopefully it is working as desired now. I was able to select all the Gmail Contacts on the computer, to delete them all at once from there. I don't email anyone from that account, so it doesn't need contacts anyway.

The apparent lesson for me is:
Make sure Sync is turned off for Contacts in the Google Account settings on the phone, *before* importing contacts.
Or, if I import the contacts before adding the Google Account, put phone into airplane mode and then add the account, and then make sure it is set not to sync Contacts before taking it out of airplane mode.

And now, after reading this: Why can't I save new contacts to my phone or SIM?, I will try out this app which hopefully will let me import and save contacts to the phone without them being linked to any Google account: MyLocalAccount

It seems my phone isn't even rooted. When I bought it, the description said "stock and rooted". I wonder if that was wrong, or if I somehow accidentally un-rooted it when doing factory resets and such. But at least this gives me the opportunity to learn how to root it. Hopefully, I won't accidentally destroy it.

I feel sort of pig-headed, going through all this trouble just to remove the phone's start-up sound. After all, I could just turn the phone on before going into the office, and then leave it in sleep mode until I need to use it.

But I want the phone rooted anyway. And having the Android SDK might be useful - maybe someday I'll learn how to create an app myself.

I feel like my posts lately are boring and uninspired. I have various things I want to post, but by the time I get around to posting anything, it's either a rant, or I'm so tired that what I write ends up being dull and emotionless.