This is how they make my daily life easier

Android is an operating system extremely used in Europealthough most people who use it don't even know that their mobile implements it. What they recognize are the Google apps they have. Many of them are used daily, like Google Photos or Gmail, but there are others that are not used as much although they are very useful, and even those that are used are not as much.

This is a problem because There are actions that we could automate or carry out with the mobile phone, ignoring other elements.like the blackboard in the kitchen to write things down for example. By always having your phone in hand, it is difficult to miss a notification from one of these applications.

The important thing is that these are very well-known applications and already installed on smartphones, so You don't need to configure them or search for them in the Google Play Store. We just need to start using them in a different way than before.

Google Maps. This app is probably one of Google's most well-known apps. It is used to create navigation routes from one place to another, or to know the traffic status in a specific area at a specific time.

But it can also be used to know where we parked the car. All you have to do is click on the blue dot when we are next to the vehicle and click on Save Parking. Then you just have to write “where is my car” in the search box of Google Maps and it will indicate the point with the text “You are parked here” and the symbol P for parking. This feature is also available on Android Auto.

Another great feature of Google Maps is being able to check where we have been on a given day. If we don't remember where we went shopping one afternoon, or what day we were in a specific place, we can consult it in the timeline, which is a section in which all the places we went appear , including times and, many times, means of transportation.

Calendar. The calendar management app is not one of the most popular on Android, except for those who work with it. But it can be useful for families since you can create events shared between several people, and set reminders both in the form of notifications and by email.

This way, the calendar becomes more of a personal assistant than a place to write down everything that needs to be done. In addition, if combined with a smart screen, everyone in the house will be able to be aware of important events, including the little ones who do not yet have a cell phone.

Reminders. Google is known for its problems with its applications, which frustrates many users. Tasks is one of those apps that we don't know if it exists, if it has been integrated into Calendar, Gmail, or if it ceases to exist. Fortunately, its operation is still present in Google Assistant, or in Gemini.

We can open the assistant and tell it to remind us of something in a day, a month, or five minutes. Doing this several times a day is something I've done for years. I use it to remind me to go shopping, collect clothes, record a video… The best part is that it appears as a notification on my mobile so even if I don't remember to enter the Calendar app, that's where they appear, will always be in view.

Again, if we have a smart display, we can also see them right there if the time has passed, like a sort of post-it note. With the advantage that if we have several screens it will appear on all of them.

Contactos. Esta aplicación sí que es usada porque es la que el sistema integra en la aplicación de Teléfono. No hay que confundirlas, porque en Contactos tendremos la agenda con los teléfonos, pero para llamar hemos de ir a la otra.

La cuestión es que, además de poder poner el teléfono o el nombre de un contacto también podremos poner su dirección, lo que es muy útil si no la recordamos y porque, si pulsamos encima, se abrirá Google Maps creando una ruta desde nuestra ubicación hacia la vivienda de ese contacto, o la dirección de su oficina, en función de lo que tengamos guardado.

Lo mismo pasa con fechas importantes, como el aniversario, que podemos poner en un cuadro de texto para ello. Pero las fechas más relevantes son los cumpleaños. En todos los contactos podremos poner la fecha de nacimiento y, lo que es más importante, aparecerá como un evento en la aplicación de Calendario si tenemos activo el calendario de cumpleaños que viene creado por defecto. De esa manera ya no tendremos que recurrir a Facebook para acordarnos.

Teléfono. La última aplicación tiene un uso muy obvio, pero lo que mucha gente no sabe es que, además de poder llamar, podemos bloquear teléfonos, para evitar que nos vuelvan a contactar. Esto se hace en los Ajustes de la misma app, que permite identificar posibles llamadas de SPAM. Además, si es un número normal pero queremos bloquearlo simplemente hay que dejarlo pulsado cuando entremos en la sección de Llamadas recientes y pulsar en la opción de bloqueo.