Next up, you'll probably want to sort out your settings. That's not as easy as it sounds with Android. On the OS, somewhat confusingly, there are both device Settings and Google Settings, with some controls accessible in both views and others not.
Google introduced Google Settings in February 2013. Today, it includes settings for apps connected to a Google account, Play Games notification settings, Location, Search & Now, Ads, Android Device manager, Drive-enabled apps, and Account History.
Location settings displays apps that recently made location requests. It's also where the user can see how little control they have over location services in Android compared with
extensive controls in iOS
, where users can switch off location functionality for some apps, but leave it available for ones that make sense, such as Maps.
Instead, Google provides three options that will be applied to all installed apps that want to use location services. "High accuracy" enables Location services to use GPS, wi-fi and mobile networks; "Battery Saving" turns of GPS and instead uses wi-fi and mobile networks; while "device only" allows GPS only. Users are told of permissions at the time of install, and to a lesser extent, during app updates. They can also check permisions in Settings, under Apps.
Location also provides access to Location Reporting and Location History, which can be toggled on or off. While the user does have the option to turn off both, doing so would compromise the functionality of services like Google Now and Google Maps. If users are interested in seeing a map of where they've been during the past year, they can see here.
Google Now is the equivalent of Siri, but in place of 'Hey Siri', you say 'OK Google'. iOS users may have already used Now by installing its Search app, but Google Now is more integral to the experience of stock Android. Having arrived in Android 4.4 as the 'launcher' for the Nexus 5, it has a persistent presence on the home screen as a search box while a swipe to the right brings up Google Now in full, offering a window of cards to weather, upcoming travel details, things nearby and so on. The third way of accessing Now is by long-pressing the home button and swiping up.
Google released the Now launcher for all Android devices and versions down to 4.1 this August. You can switch off Now by going to Google Settings, selecting Search & Now and sliding the Google Now toggle from On to Off. As Android Central notes, if you simply want remove Now as the home screen, you can install a third-party launcher, which leaves Now accessible by long-pressing the home button.
Google Setting's Accounts and Privacy displays the Gmail account used to show Now cards, as well as web and app history tied to that Gmail account. If you don't want to send Google statistics about your interactions with the Google Now Launcher, you can disable it under 'Help improve Google'. Otherwise it's on by default.
In iOS
, users can switch enable 'limit ad tracking', and reset the advertising identifier and learn how Apple uses this data. Android offers similar options under Ads.
Users will probably want to replicate the Find My iPhone feature in iOS to locate a lost device or lock it and erase it if it's stolen. The Google Setting, Android Device Manager, allows the user to enable 'remotely locate this device' and 'allow remote lock and erase'.
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