HTC Hero Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs

**IIJBII** · 10-13-2009, 07:27 PM

The more use the Hero the more I find features that I never knew about but seem very handy. Wanted to start a thread for us all to share what weve found here. Hope It helps increase our user experience with the Hero.

like other users who have posted on the forums I'm coming to the Hero from a Pre. With that I miss the way the Pre handled multiple apps. We've all been on the web and got a text and had to decide to switch apps or wait. I just found this so sorry if I'm late to the party but thought it was a great feature and worth sharing. When using an app to quickly switch apps press and hold the home key. This will bring up a windows with 6 recent apps to switch to. Once you are done you can easily switch back to the original app using the same process.

Tip: Quickly switch apps by pressing the home screen for 3 seconds. To switch back press the home screen again for 3 seconds. Nice easy app switching.

**esanger02** · 10-13-2009, 07:47 PM

When holding the phone in portrait and typing or responding to a text message, turn the phone to landscape and THEN press "Tap to compose". If you tap "tap to compose" then turn the phone it will take much longer for the keyboard to display. Just a small thing i found helpful

**lawilson2** · 10-13-2009, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by esanger02

When holding the phone in portrait and typing or responding to a text message, turn the phone to landscape and THEN press "Tap to compose". If you tap "tap to compose" then turn the phone it will take much longer for the keyboard to display. Just a small thing i found helpful

I found that useful too. I'm hoping 1.6 address that lag. I'm not sure how long it takes "the other" phone to change to landscape mode.

**Jerry Hildenbrand** · 10-14-2009, 12:02 AM

One I stumbled upon - if you're in an app that uses location and you've moved enough that your location had to reset (looks to be about 8-10 km before it looks for new data, at least in the HTC weather widget), often times it will get stuck and not refresh. Rather than reset the phone, open Gmaps and update your location.

**uminchu** · 10-14-2009, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by IIJBII

The more use the Hero the more I find features that I never knew about but seem very handy. Wanted to start a thread for us all to share what weve found here. Hope It helps increase our user experience with the Hero.

like other users who have posted on the forums I'm coming to the Hero from a Pre. With that I miss the way the Pre handled multiple apps. We've all been on the web and got a text and had to decide to switch apps or wait. I just found this so sorry if I'm late to the party but thought it was a great feature and worth sharing. When using an app to quickly switch apps press and hold the home key. This will bring up a windows with 6 recent apps to switch to. Once you are done you can easily switch back to the original app using the same process.

Tip: Quickly switch apps by pressing the home screen for 3 seconds. To switch back press the home screen again for 3 seconds. Nice easy app switching.

Another quick and easy way to jump to your new text from another app is to drag down the notifications at the top left corner. That pulls down a list of all unacknowledged events; tap an event from the list to select.

**licenced** · 10-14-2009, 02:54 AM

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

**IIJBII** · 10-14-2009, 03:13 AM

These are all good to know tips / tricks. Let's keep them going.

**zeravla531** · 10-14-2009, 10:23 AM

If you have paper on your desk, and the window is open, place the Hero on the paper to defend against a breeze.

**MikeinDC#AC** · 10-14-2009, 10:48 AM

I'd love to find a trick to turn off the double menu tap wake-up. I don't really understand the point of the screen swipe if the inside of your pocket can bypass it by pushing a button repeatedly. This is going to lead to a lot of unintended calls.

I don't really understand the need for the back-up, since it's not like the phone is going to do much if the screen doesn't respond to touch.

**Jerry Hildenbrand** · 10-14-2009, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by MikeinDC

I'd love to find a trick to turn off the double menu tap wake-up. I don't really understand the point of the screen swipe if the inside of your pocket can bypass it by pushing a button repeatedly. This is going to lead to a lot of unintended calls.

I don't really understand the need for the back-up, since it's not like the phone is going to do much if the screen doesn't respond to touch.

Set up an unlock pattern. Doesn't stop the phone from waking on menu double tap, but keeps it from doing anything.

**jeffklemin** · 10-19-2009, 12:45 AM

Originally Posted by licenced

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

Awesome tip! The click/then swipe was annoying. Thx.

**badchad#WP** · 10-19-2009, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by jeffklemin

Awesome tip! The click/then swipe was annoying. Thx.

Originally Posted by licenced

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

Definitely one of the best tips. I hate swiping.

**Luisgb** · 10-20-2009, 09:47 AM

any way at all to get rid of the slide screen if you have a pattern lock? pointless in my opinion

**NYVetteGuy** · 10-20-2009, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by licenced

Rather than pressing a button then swiping down the screen to unlock the phone, just press Menu twice.

VERY nice tip!!

**ERDude** · 10-30-2009, 09:30 PM

Want to save a picture from the web tap and hold the picture until the menu comes up.

**prot0type** · 10-30-2009, 09:45 PM

Hold down the Home button and you can switch between your six most recent apps.

**rockcrawler** · 11-01-2009, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by prot0type

So i'm on my phone accessing the site and I have a question. Is there a way to open your downloads folder other than via usb?

Search the market for an app called andExplorer. Lets you search the entire card, and the phone as well.

Here is the barcode for the app if you have barcode scanner installed.

**pacha248** · 11-01-2009, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by prot0type

So i'm on my phone accessing the site and I have a question. Is there a way to open your downloads folder other than via usb?

Astro is a good file explorer app too

**Semantics** · 11-03-2009, 02:41 AM

I love the fact that I can silence my phone just but flipping it over.

**spatel9114** · 11-03-2009, 09:01 AM

Originally Posted by Semantics

I love the fact that I can silence my phone just but flipping it over.

Yeah, I was on the Yahoo! mainpage and there was an ad for the HTC Hero to the right and I saw on there that you can do this feature, lol I have no idea that this could be done before the ad. But that's awesome though, should come in handy.

**itzkhanh** · 11-04-2009, 10:13 PM

neat trick with silencing the phone, just tried it. works on incoming calls. Don't know about anything else.

+1 for this post

**Angelo921** · 12-05-2009, 01:17 AM

Originally Posted by gbhil

One I stumbled upon - if you're in an app that uses location and you've moved enough that your location had to reset (looks to be about 8-10 km before it looks for new data, at least in the HTC weather widget), often times it will get stuck and not refresh. Rather than reset the phone, open Gmaps and update your location.

Does the Hero use more battery by having the HTC weather widget look for your location rather then just display just one location?

**Jerry Hildenbrand** · 12-05-2009, 01:23 AM

@Angelo921
I'm sure it does, but not enough that it's made a difference.

**sparda07** · 12-05-2009, 01:23 AM

found out today that u dont need the ringdroid app there is a built in ringtone editor in the music app on the hero..
Just open the default music app,select a song, hit menu, then tap set as ringtone,tap trim ringtone.save and done
means one less app u have to download and more space on the phone...

**denisew1972** · 12-09-2009, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by kratos313

found out today that u dont need the ringdroid app there is a built in ringtone editor in the music app on the hero..
Just open the default music app,select a song, hit menu, then tap set as ringtone,tap trim ringtone.save and done
means one less app u have to download and more space on the phone...

True but.... you can only do this with the MP3 files. Notice it's hit or miss when you go to trim as to if it allows you trim a ringtone or goes straight to "set as ringtone" for options. I have many different files for music not just MP3 so that is why I still use and love ringdroid.... plus ringdroid allows you to set the ringer for everything (alarm, text...) not just a notification or contact ringer like the stock app does. I agree the stock app is cool, used it before I discovered ringdroid. But Ringdroid allows you more control over what to do with the ringer once it's cut and what files it allows you to trim.