Setting up your Android smartphone: The sequel

The sequel

GSMArena team, 20 June 2013.

Social

Vine

Twitter announced its new service named Vine in January, letting you share short looping videos on the popular social network. Back then a Vine app was only available for iOS, but that exclusivity has finally come to an end. The service, which already has about 13 million active users, is available for Android.

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Vine for Android currently offers unlimited uploads, instant posting of videos on Vine and sharing on Twitter. The app lets you find, follow and interact with people and you can also explore trending posts. The important features such as front-facing camera support, search, mentions and hash tags and Facebook sharing, which are currently missing, are in the pipeline.

Get Vine (free)

Cinemagram

Cinemagram is a social network where you record short videos, which are then converted to looping GIFs and posted to your account. You can also share these GIFs on other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

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Cinemagram

If this sounds a lot like Vine, it's because it is, except Vine arrived later and, more importantly, Vine posts actual videos and not just GIFs, which means they also have audio to go with the video - which Cinemagram fails to provide.

Still, if you want to get in on some looping short video action on your Android device, then Cinemagram should scratch that itch.

Get Cinemagram (free)

Rando

Rando is an experimental photo sharing network and platform, but with a twist. Photos that you send and receive are dubbed a "rando", and in order to receive a rando, you must send one in exchange. You'll never know who has received your rando, and you'll never know who sent you one. And that's the beauty of this experiment, really.

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Rando

You can build rando collections, for example of monuments around the world. There are no likes, comments or direct communication. If you really want to see what an anonymous social network feels like, Rando is a great place to start.

Get Rando (free)

Falcon Pro

Twitter clients for Android are a dime a dozen these days, but very few of them manage to set themselves apart with the flare of Falcon Pro. The app is extremely fast and sports a great UI with smooth scrolling, inline preview of videos and images, as well as an in-app browser.

Multiple accounts are supported and can be managed from the left sliding menu. Slide your finger from the right and you'll see a menu with lists, world and local trends and saved searches. Falcon Pro also comes with scrollable widgets and an offline mode.

Get Falcon Pro ($1.96)

Reddit is Fun

In our previous article on Android, we covered the trinity of social networks, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. This time around, it's Reddit's turn. It's a social news and entertainment site that is divided into many subreddits, each devoted to a particular topic.

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Reddit is Fun

Users can publish "self" posts or links to external websites that then get up- or downvoted by other Reddit users.

With that description of Reddit in mind, the corresponding Android app aims to let you effortlessly browse the vast website. The user interface is really great and takes seconds to master.

Get Reddit is Fun (free) | Get Reddit is Fun Full ($1.99)

Quick Social

If you feel like you're wasting too much time posting on major social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+, but don't want to cut back on their usage, then the Quick Social app is designed for you. It allows you to post to social networks directly from the notification drawer.

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Setting Up Your Android Part 2 Setting Up Your Android Part 2
Quick Social

Currently, only the big three social networks are supported. Quick Social is paid on the Play Store, but its low price makes it a must-see for social network buffs.

Get Quick Social ($0.99)

Reader comments

  • latoz
  • 17 Oct 2013
  • 3sE

Hi I just to know that how to set light on for button(back, multitask) because is really frastrating at night when the light is off u must guess where is the certain button?

  • AnonD-173972
  • 09 Aug 2013
  • y{j

its out of the box "properly" its about personalize ur phone the way u like it, so the phone is more "you" some people just happy with the original UI, some ppl wants more to make their phone their "OWN decorated HO...

  • AnonD-165266
  • 15 Jul 2013
  • u78

Really good review...really helpful for me. I thank the GSMarena Team. I request them to do this kind of review every month.