Eight tips for Windows Phone 8.1 that you may not know about

With Windows Phone 8.1 being released today to those participating the Preview for Developers program, there is a lot to chew on. I wrote about the OS in a 5,500 word review and overview, but there’s so much in there, I figured you folks needed some quick tips on features you may not have known about!

Head past the break to see our eight must-know tips for Windows Phone 8.1!

One

Pin Battery Saver + Storage Sense to the Start screen – In 8.1, the Battery Saver and Storage Sense programs are now listed in the App listing. That also means you can pin them to your Start screen! What’s more, Microsoft made them Live tiles and the battery icon actually reflects your current battery status, where Storage Sense will show you in numbers your current space usage, including on your SD card.

Two

Swipe down on the Action Center for detailed status – Do you like the battery icon but want to see it in an actual percentage? Swipe down on the Action Center (from the top) and you can get detailed data on your battery, the date, carrier connection status and more

Three

Tell Cortana what news you want to follow – After doing a search through Cortana, you can scroll down to see ‘Update me on this news topic’. Click that and Cortana will start tracking that topic for you, showing any new news in your Daily Glance. The data will be saved in Cortana’s Notebook, under Interests > News. Tap on the item to toggle shows news on that topic and to enable notifications when there are new stories. You can also pin the topic to your Start screen.

Four

Enable weather in Calendar – The new native calendar app can you show the weather forecast right in the calendar! Simply head to Calendar > Settings > Preferences to enable and start seeing the day’s high temperature and weather icon. Great for planning ahead!

Five

Swipe down on the Lock screen to access the Action/Notification center – Even when PIN you can still pull down the Action Center in 8.1, without having to unlock the Lock screen. You can toggle the Quick action buttons and even dismiss alerts, but if you want to read anything, you’ll need to enter in that PIN

Six

See which Apps auto updated – On Windows Phone 8.1, you can have apps auto update for you. Head to Store > Downloads > History to see what changed!

Seven

Scan barcodes/QR codes again – If using Cortana, you lost the ability to scan barcodes through Bing Vision. However, you can still access this app/service via your Camera > Lenses > Bing Vision. It’s not as convenient, but it works.

Eight

Auto-download images in email – Many email clients block the downloading of images in email due to security and privacy concerns (images are often just links back to the website,which could be malicious). But in 8.1, you can head into Mail > Settings > Always download full message and internet images and get your images back, automatically

I know there are way more tips and tricks out there for Windows Phone 8.1, but these eight should get you started on enjoying your new experience. Do you have a favorite trick that surprised you? Share it comments, and maybe it will make our next list!

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

211 Comments

Good tips!
I thought we had lost QR forever..
What I did was I pinned this app: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/nokia-qr/092f8fd9-0a4f-403a-... It could come in handy if we could pin lenses. Edit: my bad, I just happened to see that app is no loger published, I just happened to have it installed from a while ago.
That app publisher is such a douchebag, Nokia has nothing to do with this app glad they stopped publishing it.
I use Bing Vision relatively often. I'm still installing... Any idea if we can ask Cortana to "look" at something and have it processed through Bing Vision?
I'm still installing too so I'll have to test once I get it all installed but I hope you can just ask to open bing vision or something along the lines of that. It is a lens technically not an app so I'm not sure though.
Like ask Cortana to just "scan a barcode"?
I tried but it just does a bing search. At first I was annoyed but then I realized it's the same number of steps: Old way = swipe up lock screen, tap search button, top on bing vision icon New way = press and hold camera button, tap lenses icon, tap Bing Vision, which is the first tile (not really a new way but the only way now) It would be nice if "Cortan, scan QR code" could be set to open up a specific app though.
Install UC Browser. You can then launch Cortana and say "UC Browser QR Scan". She will say "Gotcha, scan away"
Just turn off Location, Cortana will turn off and Bing Search with Vision Search Button again will work as usual.
They should mention, that now you can select a custom ringtone for apps in the notification + sounds settings.
Someone else told me this tip. Turn off location, press search button, Bing Vision.
This works great. A good tip is set location as one of the 4 shortcuts in action center so it is quick to toggle on and off to get back to Cortana goodness when you don't need QR code scanning.
Thanks for the tips, Daniel! :)
i got 8.1 all setings usa keyboard also usa ..email changed to us also...but stil no cortana
It worked for me. Try to start it via the applist not the search-button
Everyone listn cortan is in settings applications the first option is cortana
i had to open cortana in the apps firsr for it to show in the search button
Did you changed REGION ?
The input language was what was screwing me up. I'd changed to US before the update but never completed the change so it said US but hadn't actually downloaded the US input stuff. Run cortana from the app list and it'll have a link to take you to the settings you need to update. Not sure if it's the input settings alone or a bunch of them. I already had US settings for region and some other stuff, I had the input set to UK English since it didn't really understand my English accent before. So far Cortana has been a lot better.
guess this question will be the next big thing after seems faster and ... snap
Make sure the "English US" is moved to the top of the list under Languages, and that the region is to United States. (The Regional format can still be English (your country)
No more Bing Vision?!?! Lame!
bing vision is in the camera lenses and the music search is in cortana ask whats the song and it starts listening and it tells you the song
I was unaware of these. But again its all new stuff.
I can't believe just how many great features have been added in 8.1. I'm overwhelmed, and that's a good thing!
Hey Daniel! Thanks for the tips, very handy and just so that i don't miss out on saying this, it would make the experience 'seem faster'. On a more serious note, is there a video showing the volume settings changes done by you guys? Also, has wp8.1 offered better battery performance? Any comparisons pre and post wp8.1?
My guess, everyone will say the battery life sucks but that's because they'll have been using their phone all day playing with all the new features... lol. Overall it might be a tad better with improved coding, but your personal battery life is about 80% determined by how you setup your phone, i.e. how many background tasks you have, screen brightness, etc. etc.
Also, when you first get the update, every single one of your apps will be reinstalled in the background, so that will kick your battery's ass.
Thank you Daniel for the great tips about windows phone 8.1
How to enable Cortana on non US device....i switched phone region to US.. But Cortana is not enabled..
Launch Cortana from app list
Cortana is not there in the app list..
Settings - Region - USA
Settings - Language - English (United States) remove the rest or make English(US) the first one
PS: "Language not keyboard"
you should restart your device after changing the Region then Cortana should be in the App list
Yeah it is working now... Thnx...
Cortana is just mind blowing..!!!
No problem :)
and yeah she is awesome !
Change your language setting English(UK) to English (US), it works for me
posts like these make me love WPC.
Is there a quick way to delete multiple emails?...Seems to be no way to select all and delete...?...Or maybe I'm missing something
Tap on the most left side of the email while you are in your inbox. Checkboxes will appear.
Yes, I have been doing that, but you have to select each email at a time, I was wondering if there was a select all email function, then able to delete all.
This is something I've been waiting for as well. It's quite annoying to have to select a msg at a time when you just want to select all and delete :). Maybe it's there and we yet dont know about it. I am in the process of updating my 920 to WP 8.1...we'll see! If I find something I will repost here.
Dont seem it
How about using a computer and logging in to your email account and doing mass deletion there? Seems like an easy solution to me.
You seem to be missing the point, but thanks.
yes that is an easy solution haha
Is there any way for Cortana to work under the English UK language? I would rather use proper English, plus, I hate the imperial system..
I cant even see it!
Irony: The UK is *responsible* for the existence of the imperial system :)
yes - he is asking for english uk but saying he hates the imperial system. but true. the imperial system is a big fail and the UK is supposed to switch to metric but they are soooo slooooowww in doing though. they just love their pints and stones and pound ..
Grew up learning metric in the US clueless teachers thought the US would switch to it throughout the 70's, 80's, and 90's...probably still believe that. Regardless, learned imperial in the work place... Love it.
This is so fast on my Icon
Pretty decent on my 920, too. In fact, it actually seems smoother than with WP8.
I noticed the same thing. It's definitely faster.
Thanks
How to force update app- check?
Store > Settings > Check for Updates
Hey daniel where are on screen buttons??
I don't think you'll get them if your device already has buttons...
was that a serious question ?
Thank you :)
Daniel...Are the background tasks gone?...I don't see it in the application settings
Thats now in battery saver, click the app, you have options there for it.
They've been moved to battery saver.
not sure if you know it already - but they are in battery saver now :P
9. Quiet hours are dependant on Cortana, cause FUCK Europe...
...And the rest of the world. But wait, They'll make it available... eventually
Cortana is in Beta, so they are trying to limit it initially to where they have the best Bing data sources. Cortana will learn with usage, so it makes sense that they would not want the entire world as their beta testers. They will need time to understand the differences between cultures so that they don't give everyone the same responses. In fact, Cortana is only useful with location services turned on, so they will have a better way to measure the differences on how people act regionally. This is no doubt true not only with diffferent regions of the world, but also for example on how a Cortana user in Maine would be different from one in Texas...
Question: How do you add apps to the notification center? Like all I see a my Google mail, WiFi etc.. How do I add others?
I'm wondering the same thing
you need to first receive a notification. I mean, you set the app XX in it's settings to receive toats, and after receiving the first one it will show up there. Then you can, in the phone settings, define what to receive from that app: toast, tile, notification center.
Thanks!! Just did it
GOM BABY!
I am getting error 805a01f7 in Store. Already did hard reset. Help guys.
Same here
Same here
http://www.wpcentral.com/comment/237069 This is the answer? Store is down?
good grief, from Nov 2012? Hopefully not.
Are you aware that the link you posted is from 2012? The trouble some are experienced with Martketplace not being available is random. To some everything is working properly but some are experiencing trouble connecting (myself included). Guess it`s a random thing. I also did a hard reset and now I`m unable to download all apps.
Yea man. I am using 925, Can't even download apps from SD card. Why still there is no article or news on Store issue yet.
I just found this. Guessyou were right. Just the date of the link was a bit off. :) http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/winphone/forum/wp8-wpapps/error-code-805a01f7-what-is-this-and-why-cant-i/01bb2e05-bad7-4b24-b66f-0e331177e3e1
Wrong link, this one is correct. Should check announcement. http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/winphone
Thanks for the tips! Does anyone know if there's a way to set Celsius as the default for things like the new Calendar view and Cortana? I know Cortana can do a conversion but it takes one step extra.
exactly my question!
I have everything set to English (US), except for the Regional format, which I have set to Czech Republic. Calendar shows me temperatures in Celsius, but Cortana gives everything (answers as well as the "glance" weather info) in Fahrenheit :(
Did you end up finding a solution?
Unfortunately, no
The store seems to be down
I'm still updating my phone to 8.1 but I have a question, do we lose the "Deals of the Day" "Events around Me" "Movies" "Popular Videos" and "News" (I think these were the categories not the exact names) pages that were available in Bing when swiping left and right?
You might see that in search as in the screenshots in "How to find anything on your phone with Windows Phone 8.1"
I think we did unfortunately, if so I can't find a way. Unless it's under the Cortana section?
I am unable to change the phone language from UK English to US English. Any suggestions?
I just changed my language on my UK Lumia 1020. It does require a restart for the settings to take effect... More problematically for me, I'm in a village that has 750kbps internet. The download keeps timing out with an error code! Grr. I may have to venture to McDonald's for their free super speed wifi (certainly won't be going there for the food!) :)
Thank god you're not going there for the (cough) food. Bacteria won't even grow on most if it. Btw, I'm American and I won't eat it either.
McRoyal <3
Way too many tiles using set icons backgrounds. Would be nice if calendar weather showed up on the tile.
im sure that will change once devs get the release
No Cortana here as well
How much is the update size.
Dnt know the size but it'll take a good amount of time coz first update prepares ur phone for the 8.1 update then a second update for 8.1 both are full fledged update packages so almost 2-3 hours required
But its worth it
I hope most apps are updated with the option letting their live take the theme colour (like Rudy's 6apps allow), make that background image really stand out!
Can you also do a comparison on what has been changed/removed from 8 to 8.1 besides all the new features?
I am 100% on board with this request. I have been tracking as much news as possible about 8.1 but having a deeply comprehensive list of new features AND features that have transitioned but are now in a different location or activated in a different way (IE Bing Vision...and seriously, why can't that either be pinned or have an icon on the Cortana search screen like the old Bing screen?) that would be amazing. If ANYONE knows of any such source, please post it here because that's what's really going to drive the usage of these new features. A feature not used because of a lack of knowledge is a useless feature.
One thing (at least for me) that the update did was to cripple texting over Wi-Fi on T-Mobile.
I'm pretty sure (though I haven't 100% confirmed) that you can no longer set your calendar to show only the facebook events that you've RSVP'd to. Seems like they all show up now, but maybe I just haven't found the setting to turn them off yet.
Posts like this one are one of the great things about wpcentral. I am surprised to learn new things and especially with the new update Thanks wpcentral!
Store is down at the moment I guess.
Btw thanks for the tips Daniel
Word flow keyboard is awesome
Now smileys looks much better in keyboard.
Hmmm i love 8.1 so far but i hope they put back the animation on the music tile :(
I can't toggle wifi off in action center, it goes directly to the wifi settings page.... mabye a wierd place here but it thougt it is to small to start a new form tread Thanks
I can have 6 columns on my 4" HTC 8S! It rocks, thank you Microsoft! But I don't have Cortana. All settings are set to USA :/
If your 8S did not come from a US carrier, HTC did not add US English to their ROM. So far no work around to this issue. You can download the US English language pack, but all settings except the important "phone language" will change to US. Frustrating, to say the least.
why doesn't cortona have a bing vision button? seriously. Use it all the time, half my clients have qr codes for server inventory tags.
YESSS number 8!
The battery saver should be a selectable option for the notification center app short cuts...
I would like to be able to use the desktop version of facebook on IE
Looks like still no select all on emails, god that would be useful
To me Reading View in IE is a nice addition. Makes reading articles a lot easier. :)
Here not show cortana
incredible update,makes my lumia 1520 feel like a brand new phone
Can we change what the volume buttons on the phone does by default because right now it changes the notifications volume by default but most of the time when I adjust the volume it's for the music, not the notifications... So having to drag down the volume thing to be able to access volume for music is... not fun...
can i change the weather to celsius ??
Same question. I hope so, because after years in the US I still prefer seeing temperatures in degrees Celsius.
Did you find a solution?
Quick question! Who all is using the new start screen experience with the 920? Do you like it?
Using it on my 928. At first the small tiles were small to me but I am already used to it.
I agree :) Just wanted to see how many liked/disliked it. It's awesome that they gave us the option to enable it!
Wait a sec. The small tiles, are even smaller? I'm at work and won't be home til later this evening. Enjoying the comments, making me wish I was home now. On a 928. Looking for more comments on how the 928 is handling the changes.
If you enable it, the small tiles are small, then there is a medium tile and then a large tile but there is a 3rd column now if you enable it so you can have 3 medium tiles across or one large tile and one medium tile to make up 3 spaces.
I love the third column, but I just can't seem to find a decent wallpaper for tiles. I dunno, I love the feature but nothing looks good enough, arrrghh
Why the store does not work anymore?
Same here, store is not working even though there are no error messages
Seems faster , no joke ! Lumia 820
Right? On Lumia 920, and it's blazing!
yeah, L820 feels like a new device...Feels faster!!
The cool thing is that it will faster once developers will adapt their apps for the new memory management mechanism
too bad when i have notifications from 2 apps and i click on one notification, the notification icon disapear from the action center. i thinks i've seen all notifactions so no need to display again. not true. i need to clear manually or clear all for it to disapear, like on android
like on webOS
Daniel must have prepared this articles days before! Cheers Daniel!
I use Bing Vision all the time, surely hope there is a way to pin that app/service to the start screen for faster access. Having to go into the camera and switch lenses will be annoying.
Anton know if we can manually set DNS and IP yet? I cant seem to work out if that's a thing now :/
When I put battery sense on live tile it doesn't show percentage
I never said it did. I said the icon reflects your battery status. For percentage, use the Action Center.
Microsoft made them Live tiles ... maybe that's why we assumed that both apps have live tiles.
Oh okay, thanks.
How do you get the newlockscreen? Couldn't seem to find the settings
What silliness to remove bar code reader from search... Also not liking too much that Cortana settings are at the top in contrast to most all other views/apps. Since I got into listing what is still lacking (please do not get me wrong, overall I LOVE the update):
- no multiselecting videos in gallery still
- still no way attach other file types directly in the email app. Come on!
- action center animation is choppy at least on my 920
- is it me or are the status bar icons fatter now? Maybe its just that they are almost always there now, which I also don't particularly like (I know, action center...) My favorite improvement so far: perhaps some will miss the comma in the keyboard but i am LOVING how the space key sits further to the right, reducing my typos by 50% (used to always hit the comma key)! :P Hopefully things they can fix n the GDRs.
Fully agree about the email attachments. Only way is to open the document and share it to email. You'd think they could do better with this process,
Hey Daniel, one thing I noticed, I couldn't link Cortana to my FB app using the beta. Not sure if anyone else had that problem. I had to download the normal one, the beta kept going to a blank page.
So I've been messing around with the 8.1 dev preview, and after changing region to US and I finally got Cortana, it just won't answer any of my questions apart from the tasks. Example: Who's your daddy? The answer would be: a web search for "Who's your daddy". Also after pinning the battery saver tile to start it won't show its live tile. Any idea what's up with that?
Hey !!
Off the subject, how much data is needed to get both pre+main update of wp8.1
You have to have wi-fi.
If we have Facebook Beta instead of the regular Facebook app are we missing out on some integration? It keeps suggesting that I download the regular one from the store.
What is the wallpaper on the first screen please ?
Looks like a Google Nexus wallpaper to me
Thanks it looks like effectively
Daniel please upload that wallpaper for us.
Please !!
Loving having Swype back
Me too! And it works beautifully!!
Don't forget to hit your music app so it can update your songs
I appreciate Microsoft for this update because I really do like WP and I want to continue using it in the future. #keepgettingbetter
Anyone having problems with store in WP 8.1?
How disable background tasks for apps...?
My store does not work. How do I get back to wp8?
Anyone know if there's a keyboard configuration that's (a) English layout, and (b) has the "ellipsis" character (maybe under the ".")…? It's a small thing, but it's been irritating to me that it's not there. In texts and Twitter, every character counts, and "…" is a useful single character for me. :) …I do try not to… abuse… the ellipsis character… too much… really… :^)
There is Japanese QWERTY layout which has it but it converts what you write into japanese letters and you have to do extra clicks to make it back into the english letters, but maybe there is a setting to remove that, I don't know.
Automatic time setting of email sync is awesome!
How do I get the wpcentral tile to match the parallax background? For some reason its solid and not transparent like the rest
You can now create playlists straight from the music hub. Been waiting a lot for this.
Good tips, keep them coming!
I love the background image in the top most photo. Where could I download it and use!?
Now, advertised it right CORTANA
Love the auto-download of pics in my email. Just a little thing that always annoyed me.
Absolutely agree. Such a little thing but makes me so happy
Thank you for these!
Lost is the ability to turn off background data usage for certain apps? I used to go into settings and could find "Background" to turn off apps I didn't want using data in the background. Is this somewhere else?
Youcan find it inside battery saver - usage.
Store not working in Windows Phone 8.1! why?
So much stuff today. I'm glad that I'm staying home! ha ha
Can you guys spread it out or will you have this much stuff all week? Phew...tought to keep up! :)
My batery saver app doesn't update the percentage. is there anyone else with this problem?
Keyboard. How I missed shape writing from my Windows Mobile
Hello , Do anyone checked network+ setting ? after updating wp8.1 i am not able to change call forward setting when i am not reachable. I am unable to disable that setting. Do anyone have any idea about it ?
Store does not work
What happened to the background apps managing under the settings?
Come to find out, background application settings can be found by going to battery saver and info under settings.
You can navigate backwards and forwards in IE11 by swiping left-to-right and right-to-left, respectively. I mentioned this in another comment thread but I am so excited about it that I have to mention it again!
Please give me the first backgroud! IS WONDERFUL!
I miss the point of the battery sense tile as this is always on top of your screen if that tile is visible too. I would have been happier if it also displayed the %.
Battery saver does not seem to be aLive tile. It has remained static all day.
Don't know if its been mentioned yet, but first thing I did was create the clean "stormtrooper" all black tiles look (light theme) by using an all black background image. Also if you swap to a dark theme with black background you get an interesting "no tile" look! No use of the ease of access "high contrast" setting also means email client renders all emails and images properly, hooray!
I thought there were going to be changes to the lock screen (with diagonal lock screen text, and the ability to scroll through songs without unlocking the phone).
Am I missing a setting?-or was this just something that didn't make it on to the final release? I must admit, I'm fairly bored of the lock screen and was looking forward to a change...
Another one: Swipe right one notification in the notification center to dismiss it.
To all who want to blur out their pics for the homescreen background, just use Creative Studio and blur out the photo and BAM!! Takes the whole background image to a new level. Enjoy.
Did we get a way to put apps in folders? Please tell me yes. If not, I'm going to be very disappointed that they decided to pull all my games out of the xbox live folder. My list of apps is very long and inconvenient to scroll through.
As far as I can tell, you cannot organize apps into folders yet. However, any games should still be listed in "Games" as well as individually in the application list. You can find them in both places now.
Yeah, I just noticed that. But now having the games in two separate places is just annoying. It has no purpose and is a waste of space. I thought they were going to work on making folders for apps. Scrolling through a long, single file list of icons is just inefficient.
Is it possible to change the temperature setting to Celsius in the Calendar?
but the thing is we lost facebook chat on messenger... but total update was awesome... i mean really awesome... one more thing cellular network is not in action center.... just 2 feature lacks for me from me...
Nine: Moving already installed apps from your phone to your SD In Storage Sense, you can click on "apps+games" to see how much space an app uses on the phone. You can click on an app and get a new menu where you can "Move to SD" or "uninstall" the app. Heck, you can even use the select button to select and move multiple apps to your SD in one go!
Has anyone got the background picture that Daniel is using in that photo? Thanks.
When update will came in india? Thanks
Any way to set the weather in Cortana to celsius? I can ask Cortant to convert it but I don't want to do that each time.
Now WPCentral is rocking!I have opened freaking 20 windows in Chrome to read the news!SO much to read! Keep them coming! ANd btw Good TIps!
Please bring back the Facebook integration! And I missed placing all those music apps under Music Hub, that was so convenient!
Am I going nuts or did they remove the ability to share video from the camera to One Drive??? I can't seem to do this any more, and I swear you could before. Anyone???
I want the wallpaper from the first photo please! :D
One of my favorite new features that isnt getting much press is the Phone search. you can say stuff like "show me mesages from (name)" and it will search all emails, texts, etc on your phone. also can search your music collection, calendar, & contacts that way. you might have to swipe left on your search results to see the "phone" section. its a good addition!
Good tips...the weather calendar shown feature should got the option to change it from F to Centigrades.
Is it just me? I pinned the battery sense to start menu and no live tile is telling me battery status and I don't see any live tile settings in app?
There is any application in WP 8.1 for Call Recording ?? Thanks.
Hi, I just switched to WP8.1 but I can not access my phone connecting it to PC any more. Anybody has the same issue? Any driver required? Thanks. Miro
People, let me enlight you, it's faster to unable location trough action center, pressing the search button and No Cortana! u get the old bing search and barcode scanner, you use it and then activate location to use cortana.
Ithought it was common sense, since cortana uses location unabling it gives you back the old search utility, momentaneusly, until you set location back on.

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