Using the HP Print Service plugin

[Dave-in-Decatur]

There is an HP Print Service plugin pre-installed on the S4. There is approximately 0.0 help for it on the phone or in the user manual. Based on raw experimentation, I've found that is apparently functions in certain apps when the phone is on a WiFi network along with a compatible HP printer, such as my Officejet Pro 8000. I've succeeded in printing from Gallery, S Memo, and the stock Email and Internet apps. I haven't found any print capability in apps I've downloaded myself (ColorNote memos, Business Calendar, Opera Mobile browser, QuickOffice, Wikipedia) or even the pre-installed Polaris Office or the stock Calendar app.

So, two questions for people who may have made more use of this plugin and had more success with it:

1. Does it really only work with a very limited set of stock apps, which you have to figure out by trial and error? Or am I missing something?
2. I definitely have to have the phone and printer connected to my home WiFi to make this work. According to the description on Google Play, it should work "when your mobile device is connected to a compatible HP printer through a wireless network or a direct wireless connection to the printer" (my emphasis). Does anyone know what this "direct wireless connection" means or requires? I've checked, and my printer is not recognized by the phone's WiFi Direct.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer. This seems like such a great idea, if only it were more widely usable.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I contacted HP about their ePrint service for my printer, and they pointed me to the HP ePrint mobile print app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hp.android.print). It's a partial solution. It's a free-standing app, and is not integrated with other apps on the phone. It will print documents (but it has to be able to find the documents in /storage/emulated/0 and its subfolders), photos, and Web pages (you have to type or paste in the URL). And, with my printer anyway, both the phone and the printer need to be on the same WiFi network.

 

[pdw1969]

Thanks for the information, not even going to bother with the second app after reading the reviews of it, but your wi-fi info is invaluable for myself.

 

[Bill Sweeney]

Not sure why some have trouble making the built-in HP Print Plugin to work. If your printer is setup properly on the network it should be seamless. I actually have somewhat of a reverse problem. A few weeks after setting up my new Samsung Note on my WiFi and everything working great my Netgear router flamed out. Everything is back online, but I have an "unavailable" Hp Print Plugin that seems to be the default. I simply choose the working option from the list, but it sure would be nice to remove the other one or set the working oneas default.

Also, I found the Hammermill app allows me to print the few times I'm unable to via an app.