TOP 35 HTC ONE M9/M9 Plus Tips And Tricks!

HTC One M9 and M9 Plus are the HTC flagship smartphones of 2015.  This guide will show you tips and tricks of this awesome phone from HTC M9 and M9 Plus, so let’s get started!

 

1. Fingerprint Scanner (M9 Plus ONLY)

One of the best features of this phone is the built in fingerprint scanner that’s built on the phone’s home screen. The fingerprint scanner works in a similar way to the one found on the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, as it’s really fast and requires no swipe.  All you need to do is to put your finger on the home button and that’s it.  The fingerprint scanner allows 5 different fingers to be registered and you can register them from three different locations in Settings > Fingerscanner, Settings > Security > Fingerscanner, or from Notificaiton Panel.

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 2

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 0

Tap on “Add fingerprint” button to add your fingerprint. You can register up to 5 fingerprints.

The below screen will show up, tap on Next button.

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 3

The below screen will show up at which you should touch the home button and hold, then lift your finger and repeat the process until it finishes.

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 4

You’re now ready to unlock your phone with your fingerprint.

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 5

 

2. Use the Physical button as the “Home button:(M9 Plus ONLY)

The above title might sound little strange, although HTC seems to have especially built the physical button for the fingerprint scanner, but they do also give users a choice to use it as the home button.  If that’s your thing and you like physical buttons, then this is for you.

Navigate to Settings > Fingerprint Scanner and check the “Home button” option.

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 6

Note:

Remember that this home button is little different from the one on other phones, the home button WON’T move back when you press it, which means that you should simply “Touch” it to do this function exactly as you do while unlocking it with your fingerprint.

3. Unlock Your Phone Without Waking up its Screen (M9 PLUS ONLY)

Remember One Plus 2 that was launched?  That one has a nice feature that enables you to unlock your phone and go directly to the home screen WITHOUT the need to first waking up the phone’s screen. Well, the same feature can be found on HTC One M9 Plus, which is really cool and let you rest the power button a little bit.

How To Set up Fingerprint scannr on htc one m9 plus 7

3. Customize Navigation Buttons

HTC phones do not rely on using physical buttons.   Instead, it uses capacitive buttons.  One of the cool features is that you can change and customize these buttons to your liking and even remove them or add new ones.

Steps:

1. Navigate to Settings > Personalize >  Change Home Buttons.

How To Customize and Change Navigation Bar buttons on htc one m9 plus

2. A new screen will show up at which you have 3 other buttons to add including “Turn off screen”, “Auto Rotate”, and “Notifications”. Simply check ON any of these buttons to add them to the navigation bar buttons.  You can also uncheck the default three buttons if that’s your thing!

How To Customize and Change Navigation Bar buttons on htc one m9 plus

4. Change Accent Color Of The UI and The Launcher

The HTC launcher on this phone allows you to add wallpaper on the home screen but shows different background color on the app drawer which is blue.  The good news is that you can change the color and also change the color that shows up on the Settings options.

Navigate to Settings > Personalize > Change accent colors, and you can choose 6 from different color packs.

How To Customize and Change Launcher Background on Htc one m9

Here’s the change shown below:

How To Customize and Change Launcher Background on Htc one m9  3

You can also change the accent color to a custom colors provided as shown below:

How To Customize and Change Launcher Background on Htc one m9 4

5. Try Out New Themes

HTC was one of the first smartphone manufacturers that introduced themes last year followed by Samsung.  You can change your phone’s theme to countless different new themes.  The new theme will give a whole new look to your phone.

To change or add a new theme navigate to Settings > Personalize > Change or edit theme.

How To Change Themes on Htc one m9 plus

How To Change Themes on Htc one m9 plus 2

Note:

You can also create your own theme based on your home screen wallpaper by tapping on the “+” button at the top right corner of the screen.   The phone will customize the icons and the look of the UI based on your home screen wallpaper which is another nice feature of this phone.

How To Change Themes on Htc one m9 plus 3

6. Change icon packs

This is another nice feature that’s inside the themes section.  You can replace your default icons on the app drawer and home screen.  There are a lot of nice icon packs for you to install inside HTC’s own icon market.

How To Change icon packs on htc one m9 plus

Note: 

You do also have the options for changing “Sounds, Fonts” of your phone in the same category inside Themes as shown in the above screen.

7. Remove Blinkfeed if you don’t like it!

Blinkfeed is the feature that was first introduced on HTC One M7, it contains different kind of news from politics, sports, and other news. But if for some reason you don’t like this feature, you can remove it from the home screen.

Navigate to Settings > Personalize > Manage Home Screen Pages

How To Remove Blinkfeed from htc one m9 plus

 8. Customize The Background For The HTC Dot View Cover

Remember the dot view cover? The one that’s transparent and showed weather, clock and calling screen?  Now you can change its background and even install apps for it.

Simply open “HTC Dot View” app and there you can browse a ton of great Dot View backgrounds.  You can also install apps like Dot Design and Dot Message as shown below:

How To Customize Dot View Backgrounds on htc one m9 plus

How To Customize Dot View Backgrounds on htc one m9 plus 2

There are several other cool options inside settings of the app like HTC Dot View timeout, the type of notification to show, show call history, bypassing screen security and the use of holiday themes.

How To Customize Dot View Backgrounds on htc one m9 plus 3

 9. Use Awesome Motion Launch Gestures

One of the coolest feature of this phone is Motion launch gestures, these motions can be used for doing different tasks on the phone while the screen is off.

Navigate to Settings > Display & gestures > Motion launch gestures.

Below are the list of all 6 functions you can do:

How To Use Motion Launch Gestures on Htc one m9 plus

1. Double tap to wake up and screen.

htc one m9 plus Double tap to wakeup the screen

2. Swipe down to turn on voice dialing.

htc one m9 plus Swipe down to turn on Voice dialing

3. Swipe up to unlock.

htc one m9 plus Swipe up to unlock the screen

4. Swipe left to launch widget panel.

htc one m9 plus Swipe left to open widgets

5. Swipe right to launch blinkfeed.

htc one m9 plus Swipe right to open blinkfeed

6. Volume button to launch Camera.

htc one m9 plus tap on volume button to open camera app

 10. Get Full Contents From Your Older Android, iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows Phone

This is another nice feature that allows you to transfer contacts, messages, photos, videos, musics, and more from your old phone.  It does not matter whether your old phone is an Android, iPhone, Blackberry or a Windows phone. What’s awesome about this feature is that it does all that without the need for installing any apps from Play Store (Samsung does something similar using Smart Switch app from Play Store).

STEPS:

1. Navigate to Settings > Get Content From Another Phone  and then choose your phone type (Android, iPhone, Blackberry, or Windows phone).

How To Transfer photos, videos, contacts, messages from your older phone to htc one m9 plus

2. After choosing your older phone, another screen will show up giving you two transfer options: a quick transfer that lets you transfer your contacts or full transfer which includes retrieving everything from your older phone.

How To Transfer photos, videos, contacts, messages from your older phone to htc one m9 plus 2

 11. Use The Built-in Flashlight Right From The Notification Bar

This is another cool feature which is similar to the one found on the Galaxy S6/S6 Edge.  This feature lets you enable flashlight right from your notification bar.

Simply swipe down twice from the top of the screen, then tap on the “FLASHLIGHT” toggle as shown below:

How To Use Built in flash light on htc one m9 plus

 12. Customize and Change Notification Bar Toggles

This feature is also available on many other phones.  HTC One M9/M9 Plus allows you to add 12 toggles to the notification bar. Just in case you don’t use the default ones, you can simply remove them and add new ones to your liking.

STEPS:

1. Swipe down twice to see the toggles.   Then tap on the rectangular button highlighted in yellow.   You will see another screen with toggles that you can add.

How To customize and change notification bar toggles on htc one m9 plus

2.You can add up to 12 toggles.  First, you must first remove the older ones before adding newer ones.  To do that, simply tap on 3 lines button corresponding to each toggle and tap-and-drag it up to the main toggles list on top or down.

How To customize and change notification bar toggles on htc one m9 plus 2

 13. Taking Screenshots is Easy As Pie

Taking screenshots on One M9/M9 Plus is easy as pie.

Simply tap-and-hold both Poower and Volume Down buttons simulateously and it will take the screenshot for you, which can be accessed later inside Gallery or inside Internal Storage > Pictures > Screenshots directory.

How To take screenshots on htc one m9 plus 2

How To take screenshots on htc one m9 plus

-You can also take screenshots right from the notification bar but only after  you add the screenshot toggle to the notification bar as it’s not there by default (look at tip No.12 for that).

 

 14. Use Extreme Power Saving Mode and Save Some Juice

Extreme power saving mode will disable most of the phone’s functions except the essential ones like calls, messaging, calculator, clock, calendar, and e-mail.  This can save you a great deal of battery life in emergencies when you don’t have an access to a wall adapter or USB Power Bank.

Navigate to Settings > Power and enable “Extreme Power Saving Mode“.  A new screen will show up informing you about losing some of the phone’s functionality.   Tap “OK” and you’ll be welcomed with the main screen of this mode.

How To Enable Extreme Power Saving Mode On Htc One M9 Plus

This mode will be enabled when the battery level reaches 5% by default but you can change it to 10 or 20% also.

How To Enable Extreme Power Saving Mode On Htc One M9 Plus 2

 

 15. Don’t Forget About Smart Lock Feature!

This is a great feature that was introduced with Android Lollipop.   It enables your phone to be locked and unlocked at the places you choose through bluetooth devices, NFC, trusted places/locations, voice detection and/or on-body detection.

STEPS:

1. Navigate to Settings > Security and open “Trusted Agents” then enable it. (Smart Lock feature won’t be enabled until you enable this one).

How To Enable Smart Lock Feature on Htc One M9 Plus

2. Then go back to the “Security” and open Smart Lock.  Another screen will open up showing you a list of options to choose from (you can get full details about this feature on our extensive guide of using Smart Lock by clicking here as it’s explained on Galaxy Note 4 but it’s the EXACT SAME process on this phone).

How To Enable Smart Lock Feature on Htc One M9 Plus 2

 16. Protect Your Privacy By Using Screen Pinning Feature!

This is another cool feature that allows you to Pin or “lock” the phone on any screen.  This can be useful when your friend asks for your phone to make a call and you want your friend to use the Phone app only but not look through other things on your phone.

By enabling this feature you can pin the phone’s screen and your friend can’t get out of this screen unless he/she puts a password.

Navigate to Settings > Security > Screen Pinning and enable it.

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus

1. Enable the Screen Pinning first.

2. Then open the screen you want to pin.

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus 2

3. Then tap on “Recent apps” button.

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus 3

4. A new screen will show up showing all the opened apps and screens, I simply tap on the blue pin button to pin the settings screen I want.

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus 4

5. You can close the pinned screen by tapping and holding on both back button and recents Button.

6. It also asks whether I want to input password while closing the pinned screen.   This will allow you to fully lock and pin your screen with a password so no one can change the screen until they input a password.

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus 5

7. After tapping on “START” button, the screen will be pinned.

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus 6

As mentioned above, to unpin the screen tap and hold both back button and recents buttons at the same time and remember that you won’t be able to unpin it unless you input the password you set earlier!

How To Enable Screen pinning feature on htc one m9 plus 8

 17. Use it As a TV Remote Control

This feature was first introduced on the HTC One M8.  The remote control app is exactly the same as found on latest Samsung phones, which is the Peel Smart Remote app, you can also get it on the Play Store.

Steps:

1. Open the app and choose your country, choose “other countries/regions” if your country is not on the list.

How To use htc one m9 plus as a tv remote control

2. Choose “TV”, then choose your TV brand.

How To use htc one m9 plus as a tv remote control 2

3. Make sure your TV is off and point your phone toward your TV and tap on the Red power button.

How To use htc one m9 plus as a tv remote control 3

4. If your TV turned on then it means that you’ve successfully set up the phone as your TV remote control.  If didn’t turn on your TV choose “NO” and then try “Button2” until it turns your TV on.

How To use htc one m9 plus as a tv remote control 4

5. You are now ready to use the app and does most of the TV functions that you can do with the original remote control.

How To use htc one m9 plus as a tv remote control 5

6. You can also create the “always on” widget for the fast access, which can be enabled in Settings.  This will enable you to access the remote from everywhere even on the lock screen.

How To use htc one m9 plus as a tv remote control 6

18. Use it As a Air Conditioner Controller

This is another useful feature of the “Peel Smart Remote” app, it allows you to turn on/off your air conditioner, allowing you to change the fan speed and the temperature.  But it does not contain settings for changing the mode like changing from cool to warm.

STEPS:

1.Open Peel Smart Remote app.

2. Tap on 3-dot button and choose “Change Room” then choose “Add room”.

How To use htc one m9 plus as air conditioner controller

3. On the next screen choose “Air conditioner” and then choose its brand (Hitachi in my case).

How To use htc one m9 plus as air conditioner controller 2

4. Point your phone toward the air conditioner and tap on the red circle button. Choose “YES” if it turns the conditioner on and choose “NO” if it doesn’t.

How To use htc one m9 plus as air conditioner controller 3

How To use htc one m9 plus as air conditioner controller 4

5. You’re now ready to use your phone as the Air Conditioner controller.

19. There is also Kid Mode!

Kid mode allows your kid to play and read books and do other activities. You can access it by tapping on the”Kid mode” app in the app list.

How to Use kid mode on htc one m9 plus

Remember that this requires internet connection at first because you need to sign up for an account then input you kid’s age and avatar.  Below are the screenshots of this mode:

How to Use kid mode on htc one m9 plus 2

How to Use kid mode on htc one m9 plus 3 How to Use kid mode on htc one m9 plus 4

 20. Enable Glove Mode

This is a useful feature especially for cold weather when you wear your gloves and want to use your phone.   Enabling this mode makes sure the phone’s screen gets a bit more sensitive so you can use your phone with the gloves on.

Enable it in Settings > Display & Gestures.

How To Use Glove Mode on htc one m9 plus

21.End Call With Power Button

This is one of the oldest features of Android phones that enables you to end phone calls by pressing the power button.

Enable it in Settings > Accessibility.

How To End calls with power button on htc one m9 plus

 

 22. Easy Mode

This mode is useful for those who want less and bigger icons on the home screen.

Enable it in Settings > Personalize > Change home screen launcher.

How to use and enable easy mode on htc one m9 plus 3

Enabling this mode will set 3 pages on the home screen:

Main screen: consists of clock widget and some essential apps.

– Left screen: consists of your contacts at which you can add and customize the list to your own needs.

– Right screen: this screen lets you add apps to the main screen or surf the whole list of apps on the phone.

How to use and enable easy mode on htc one m9 plus

This change in size also applies to the notification panel as shown below.

How to use and enable easy mode on htc one m9 plus 2

 

 23. Pocket Mode

This is another feature that allows your phone to ring louder when inside pocket or bag.

Enable it in Settings > Sound & Notification.

How to use enable pocket mode on htc one m9 plus

 

 24. Quite Ringing on Pickup

This feature will lower the ring volume when you pickup the phone.  This may be useful when you don’t want to bother others with your ringtone and want to lower it as soon as you pickup the phone (while ringing).

Enable it in Settings > Sound & Notification. 

How to lower ringtone volume when picking up on htc one m9 plus

 

25. Flip To Mute

This is another old but useful feature.  When your phone is facing up and a call comes in, turning the phone over will mute it.

You also have two options:

– Mute Once: enabling this will mute the ring once, which means if your phone is facing down and another call comes in, it WILL ring.

– Mute Always: enabling this one will always mute when the phone is facing down.

Enable this feature in Settings > Sound & Notification.

htc one m9 plus flip to mute phon calls

 

 26. Notification On Lock Screen

Some users like to see their notifications on the lock screen but others don’t like it.  Luckily, this phone provides this feature to either show all or no notifications on the lock screen, pretty useful feature.

Enable it Settings > Sound & Notification.

limit lock screen notifications on lock screen

 

27. Customize Screen Lock Time

This one applies for those who use one of the lock screen methods (password, pin, pattern, fingerprint scanner) and does not apply for swipe method.  Basically you can change whether the phone locks immediately after you press the “Power button” or it locks after some time.

You can change all these in Settings > Security > Lock phone after.

Customize screen lock time on htc one m9 PLUS

28. Disable Some Apps

HTC One M9/M9 Plus is ridiculously fast.  But if you want it to be even faster, you can disable some of your  unwanted apps.

All you need to do is to navigate to Settings > Apps then tap on the app you want to disable and choose “DISABLE”.  That’s it!

how to disable apps on htc one m9 plus

Remember that you CAN’T disable ALL of your apps, as disabling some of them will cause the phone not to function properly.  So be careful about which  one you want to disable!!!

 29. Arrange Apps in the Drawer Menu

You can arranges apps based on three different options which are alphabetical, recent and custom.

Open the app drawer and tap on the top left corner of the screen then choose the option that you want as shown below.

how to arrange apps on htc one m9 plus

 30. Hide/Unhide Apps

Like many other Android smartphones, you can hide/show hidden apps also.

To do that open the app drawer and tap on the 3-dot button at the top right corner of the screen and choose “Hide/unhide apps” option.

how to hide unhide apps on htc one m9 plus

Then select the apps you want to hide and tap on “DONE” button.

how to hide unhide apps on htc one m9 plus 2

 

31. Change App Grid Size

This is another one of the few customizations that you can do to on the phone’s launcher.  You can change the grid size to 3×4 or 4×5.

Open the app drawer and tap on the 3-dot button at the top right corner of the screen, then choose “Grid Size“.

how to change grid size on htc one m9 plus

how to change grid size on htc one m9 plus 2

 

32. Backup And Restore Your Settings Using HTC Backup

This feature allows you to backup your settings, contacts, messages, accounts, password, bookmarks and apps to the cloud.   It will restore everything when you reset or change your older phone to a newer one.

STEPS:

1. Go to the app list and open “HTC Backup” and tap on “Turn on Automatic Backup”.

backup contacts, messages, settings, password, bookmarks , apps on htc one m9 plus

2. On the next screen, the app shows info about your apps, contacts.  It also shows up an option for the “Daily Backup”.  Tap on Next button to start the backup process and it will take you to the Cloud service (Google Drive in this case), which you want to upload to.

backup contacts, messages, settings, password, bookmarks , apps on htc one m9 plus  2

Note:

You can also do the same process in Settings > Backup & Reset.

backup contacts, messages, settings, password, bookmarks , apps on htc one m9 plus 3

 

33. Use HTC CONNECT For Playing Media On Your TV

This feature is similar to what’s found on Samsung Galaxy devices, it allows you to play media on your TV or cast gadgets like Chromecast. You can enable it either in the notification panel or in Settings > HTC Connect.  It will then automatically search  for TV and any other gadgets that you can play media from as shown below.

How To Play Media on TV using htc one m9 plus's htc connect feature

How To Play Media on TV using htc one m9 plus's htc connect feature 2

34. Camera Tips And Tricks

Tap on the Gear icon to go Settings, there you can enable the below first 6 modes.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 0

1. Auto Smile Capture: Automatically captures the photo when you smile.

2. Voice Capture: Say “Cheese or Capture” for taking photos, and “Action, Rolling” for recording videos.

3. Touch to Capture: This will allow you to take photos by tapping on the camera app’s screen.

4. Lock Focus during recording: This will lock focus while recording video.

htc one m9 camera tips and tricks

5. Continuous shooting: tapping and holding the shutter button will take continuous set of photos.

6. Shoot 4K Video:

htc one m9 camera tips and tricks 2

7. Slow Motion:  tap on the record button twice to enable this mode.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 3

8. Fast FullHD (1080p60): tap on the record button thrice to enable this mode.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 4

9. Panorama:  tap on the bottom left button then choose “Panorama”.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 5

10. Split Capture: this will enable both front and back camera and takes two shots and mix them together in one split photo. You must tap on the “ADD” button to use this feature.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 6

11. Photo Booth:  this one will take 4 pictures in a grid. Again you must tap on the “ADD” button to enable it.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 7

12. Save Custom Camera:  This will allow you to save custom camera settings for you to load it at the time of need.  You can save several custom cameras, which is really useful for those who want to capture using different modes without having to do it manually on the go.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 8

13. HDR Mode: This mode will combine 3 photos with 3 different exposures automagically and take better pictures, especially when shooting where there’s a lot of changes in exposure (e.g. shooting into sunset).

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 9

14. Macro: This mode is useful for taking closeup shots.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 10

15. Use Volume Buttons For Different Functions: You can set them to work as the capture button or as a zoom button.

htc one m9  plus camera tips and tricks 11

35. Use Built-in Photo Editor

htc one m9 plus photo editor

The built-in photo editor adds another awesome layer to your captured pictures by adding several great effects and it consists of 4 categories:

htc one m9 plus photo editor 2

1. Essential: This category contains filters, cutting & resizing tools, plus red eye removal tool.

htc one m9 plus photo editor 3

2. Flair:

This category consists of “Frame and Draw”.

htc one m9 plus photo editor 5

3. Effects:

This category consists of shapes, photo shapes, prismatic, double exposure, elements and face fusion.

htc one m9 plus photo editor 4

4. Touch up:

This category is specific to face and consists of skin smoothing, lighting , face contour and eye enhance.

htc one m9 plus photo editor 6

 

 SPECIAL THANKS: Dr.Ranj Muhammad

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Rawand Haidar

Rawand is Petroleum Engineer.He is Super high on Android. Rawand has been blogging since 2011, written more than 150 articles including tutorials, news, reviews about Android. He is interested in all things Android. Follow Me on Twitter