Nexus 5 on the way -- any must have/must do things right away?

[slab0meat]

I searched through two pages' worth of titles, so forgive me if this has been asked.

The only Android phone I've used has been an EVO 3D... I have a Nexus 5 on the way. I've read bits and pieces of info, some of which I've forgotten details on... like the notification light not blinking quickly enough (or something like that?) or an app that is similar to the Moto X's active notifications...

So, once I get the phone up and running, any recommendations on apps or settings I should do right away for a good (better) experience?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bront]

Root it immediately. Unlocking the bootloader will require a factory reset, so save yourself the hassle by rooting it..

If you backup your apps on Google, wait till you're on wifi and have it setup before you put your google account in, it will save your data, and go faster.

If you want to save battery, disable "Ok Google", NFC, put screen brightness on auto, GPS as as needed (Off unless an app looks for it).If you're not going to mod it using XPosed, enable ART for the runtime processing (in Dev ops). Simply doing that, I can get 1.5-3 days of light to moderate use on a charge (I use ART).

After that, explore. Set it up however you like it (For example, my home screen I like having a bigger clock, my weather app, and 8 of my most used general use apps (People, Calendar, Gas Buddy, Maps, Camra. Gallery, Play Music, and Chrome), and then have Calls, Email, Texting, and Voicemail on the bottom always access panel). Setup your data synch and apps how you like and for your needs, keeping in mind your data usage and battery usage (more synching = mode up to date/on demand, less means better battery life and less data usage, I have most of my apps on "when I open it" update).

 

[JeffDenver]

I searched through two pages' worth of titles, so forgive me if this has been asked.

The only Android phone I've used has been an EVO 3D... I have a Nexus 5 on the way. I've read bits and pieces of info, some of which I've forgotten details on... like the notification light not blinking quickly enough (or something like that?) or an app that is similar to the Moto X's active notifications...

So, once I get the phone up and running, any recommendations on apps or settings I should do right away for a good (better) experience?

- Get a file manager. All the major ones are decent. I use Solid Explorer. You will not need it every day, but when you do need it, you will miss it.

- Backup your Call Logs and SMS messages. "Call Log backup and Restore" and "SMS Backup and Restore" are two free apps on the market that can help you with this.

- Get a Box.com account/app, and upload all your photos (and videos) if you can to it. You can download them to your new phone the same way.

Once you have the new phone, I'd recommend these apps:

- Slider Widget from the Play store...for volume control
- Dropbox and Google Drive (You can never have enough cloud storage and a backup is always good)
- Adobe Reader
- Quickoffice (for when you have to read Office docs)
- Google Keep (Awesome notebook app with cloud backup)
- Taptu (the best news reader on Android)
- Display Brightness (a unique widget that will let you change brightness immediately and in realtime from any screen)
- Team Battery bar (draws a line on your display that shrinks as your battery shrinks...very customizable)
- Battery Widget Reborn - Awesome battery widget
- Nova Launcher Prime (unless you like the GEL launcher that comes with the phone...a lot of people dont)

I would not recommend rooting unless you have a specific reason to root. I rooted so I could use "Wifi tether router" to tether my tablet without T-Mobile knowing, for example. But if I did not need that, I would not have rooted.

 

[npark2012]

There are pros and cons of rooting. I want to state right off the bat that you do not necessarily have to root your phone to have a great experience with your Nexus 5. That entirely depends on your needs and wants. Some people don't need root, some do. For me personally, I have chosen to root just so I can install my cerberus anti theft app into the rom itself so it survives a reformat.

Other than that there would be no need to root for me. You should research on the things you can do with root that would possibly cater to your needs. But I will suggest some things that you can do without rooting. First I find very useful the notification toggles. There are two apps that I have used that does a really great job. The first app is widgetsoid and the second is Power toggles. Makes things much more convenient. The other is a messaging app replacement. Unless you are happy with hangouts but most are not happy based on what I've read. Currently I use 8sms which is very similar to stock messaging app that was seen in the Galaxy Nexus. There are other great messaging apps like Textra, Chompsms, GoSms, etc.

I would suggest downloading an anti virus app like Avast just to be on the safe side. Doesn't use too much resources and doesn't slow down the phone at all.

I also would like to suggest getting Dashclock widget. It's very useful, you can use this widget on the lockscreen and it will show if you have any emails, sms, missed calls, etc without going into your phone.

For an alarm clock, I would highly suggest getting Timely installed, it's been bought by google and is now free. It's so much better, in my opinion than the stock clock. And my favorite feature of this is that it can synchronize with other devices that has timely and is connected with the same gmail account.

If you don't have it already a different keyboard would be nice as well. I would suggest swiftkey if you want a better predicting keyboard than stock.