Ten tricks you can do on Windows Phone 8

Although we think we know our terminals, the day always comes when we discover something new that may surprise us. I'm not talking about applications that we've never seen before, and that we suddenly discover browsing the Internet, rather I'm referring to those little tricks that not everyone knows, but that they are there.

So that you do not miss any of the tricks available in Windows Phone 8, we present a collection of ten of them that may be useful to you. Some are well known, and others less so, but it never hurts to review them.

1. If the phone gets stuck…

I have not yet had the misfortune to suffer a crash in my terminal, and not be able to even restart it. But in case that happens, in Windows Phone 8 you can force reboot by holding both volume control buttons + lock button + camera button at the same time for 5 seconds

2. Take screenshots

In previous versions of Windows Phone it was impossible to take screenshots (without modifying internal aspects of the terminal), this being one of the features most requested by users.

Therefore, on Windows Phone 8 capturing what you see on the screen only requires you to press the unlock button and the Windows button at the same time , as you can see in the previous image. The images will be stored in the images hub.

3. Speech recognition

Every Windows Phone comes with the voice recognition feature installed. To use it, all we have to do is hold down the Windows button on the terminal.

In addition, from the configuration section we can choose if we want the phone to read incoming text messages aloud, and in what situations we want it to do so, among other options.

4. Mute a call

When we can't or don't want to pick up a call, but the phone keeps ringing, we can press any of the volume control buttons to mute the call.

This way, the phone stops ringing, but we don't hang up on the person trying to contact us.

5. Changing lock screen

If in the configuration of the lock screen we choose Bing as the background, we will see how every day we have a new image on said screen. We can see information about that image just below the dropdown where we choose the background.

6. Notifications on the lock screen

From the lock screen settings, we can choose which applications we want to show information on the lock screen (usually the number of unread messages or missed calls), in addition to an application that shows a detailed status.

The latter, for example, allows us to see the upcoming events on our calendar, or read the latest WhatsApp received from the lock screen without opening the application.

7. Scientific calculator

If you have ever used the calculator included in Windows Phone, and you have never taken to placing your phone horizontally, you may have missed an interesting part of said application.

When you open the calculator, if we turn the phone horizontally, the scientific calculator appears to solve other types of formulas and mathematical problems more complex.

8. Add keyboards in other languages

By default you probably have the keyboard installed in Spanish, but you can install those of other languages ​​without problems and switch between them quickly. There are even keyboards available with which you can draw Chinese characters!

To install a new keyboard, you can go to keyboard settings, and under add keyboards you will see a list of available languages. When the download is complete, it will be available whenever an app pulls up the keyboard.

To toggle between one language or another, we can press the ESP key (or the default language we have), and the keyboard will change to the next one on the list. We can also hold down to display the list of all available ones.

9. Activate the camera with the phone locked

Has it ever happened to you that you see something that you would like to photograph quickly, like an animal, but it immediately hides and you don't have time? For these types of occasions, this trick may come in handy for you.

When the phone is locked, if you hold down the camera button for a few seconds, the phone will unlock and the camera will be activated directly.

10. Make your phone turn on faster after its battery runs out (Nokia Lumia only)

When the battery of our Nokia Lumia runs out completely and we want to turn it on, plugging it into the mains always takes a few minutes for it to be sufficiently charged.If instead of using the socket we connect it to the computer with USB, it turns on faster.

In Welcome to Windows 8 | Back to school with Windows 8 and Windows Phone: the best apps