10 Ways Your Android Phone is Smarter than You

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Published 3 Apr 2015

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You say you miss your dumbphone, but you really don’t because your smartphone is, well, a hell of a lot smarter. It’s brighter than your dumbphone; it’s also sometimes more intelligent than you. And it should be! It’s packed with sensors, a lifetime of knowledge, and access to the Internet. And eerily accurate predictions based on your habits. Here are 10 ways your Android phone is too intelligent for its own good.

It Knows If You’re Holding It

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Android Lollipop’s new smart lock feature can tell if the phone is in your hand or pocket and unlock it accordingly. Does that make it more intelligent than you? Raise your hand if you’ve lost your phone, only to find it in your pocket.

It Knows When You’re Looking At It

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Some Android devices have an option called smart stay. Which, when turned on, uses the front-facing camera to determine if you’re looking at the screen. And what angle your head is at. And most Android devices will let you unlock them with your face.

It Knows Your Internet History

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Okay, this is more of a Chrome than an Android thing. Chrome users can sync their tabs across their devices, which means that tab you had open on your computer? It’s also open on your phone!

It Knows What You’re Listening To

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You can download Shazam for instant song recognition, but you don’t have to. Android search app also listens to recognize the music or TV show playing in the background.

It’s Also Always Listening

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Okay, not always, unless you set up OK , in which case, yes, always.

It Knows Where You Are

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Android automation apps, like Tasker, let you automate things based on your location. For example, you can tell your Android phone to turn on Wi-Fi when you get home. How does Android know when you’re home? Why? Because it knows where you are, of course. Duh.

It Knows Where You’re Going, How Long It Will Take You To Get There

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Think you can escape Android’s omniscient presence by planning a trip? Think again! Maps obviously know where you’re going. It also knows approximately how long it will take you to get there based on travel times from previous users. Average speed data during the time of day and current traffic.

It Knows the Temperature and Humidity Level

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 had a chip that took relative humidity and ambient air temperature measurements. Which you could access through the Samsung Health app. The S5 doesn’t, but it does have a heart rate sensor. In other words, your Android phone probably knows much more about what’s happening around it than you do.

It Knows Who’s Calling You

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Even if you don’t. That’s right, some Android phones have smart caller IDs. This means they use local business data to determine the identity of phone numbers. Even if they’re not in your address book.

It Knows What You’re About To Say

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The iPhone just got predictive typing. But Android has been able to somewhat poorly predict the next word you’re about to text for years.