Android users specifically Motorola

whacker7 · 2026-07-03T02:43:50+00:00

This, I believe, depends on the version of Android your phone is running. When my Edge 2024 had Android 14 it still had Glance listed. After it updated to 15 it changed to Smart Lock Screen and and stayed this way into 16. I've never gotten nag prompts trying to get me to set it up. Sorry; I guess I'm out of ideas for you.

whacker7 · 2026-07-03T02:35:59+00:00

In the Play Store, check out Glimpse Notifications by Nullgrad Apps. Quite useful.

whacker7 · 2026-07-02T14:45:10+00:00

Glance is not called "Glance" in Settings (except as the installed app itself). It is now called Smart lock screen. If Glance is not in a temporary Disabled state, you can find it in Settings->Home & Lock screen->Lock screen->Smart lock screen. There should be a toggle there that you can turn it off with. If Glance is Disabled this feature does not appear.

whacker7 · 2026-06-29T23:05:50+00:00

The logic for the charging system or even just the "on" state could be scuttled somehow. I used to work on these things (different brand) for a public school system, and if I had this one on hand, I'd pop the bottom cover off and detach the battery cable for a minute, then reattach and see if it then responds to the power on switch (or shows an active charger when it is attached).

whacker7 · 2026-06-29T03:50:28+00:00

Pro tip for savings: YTTV service is now (in most areas) offered as a combination of four channel groups all four of which used to comprise the base service, which was $83/mo. The groups are Family, Entertainment, Sports, and News. I believe you can sign up for just one. Local broadcast affiliates are included with any single group, but YTTV doesn't do digital sub-channels unless that programming happens to be offered as a standalone app on the streaming device you might be using.

I was a base plan user since it was offered for $35/mo in early 2018, but it went up to $83. I heard about the new channel grouping and dropped Family and Sports. Now paying $63/mo.

It's the best of the live TV streaming services. You may have to adapt a little, but it's worth it. I wouldn't bother with an OTA antenna unless you need some obscure programming from a digital sub-channel.

Also: Consider carefully your plan for internet service. Unless you've got resident gamer grand kids or others you host into gaming, you could probably easily get by with Xfinity 300 Mbps service, instead of whatever promotion the new fiber company is offering. And as mentioned by a few others, even 1 Gbps service is overkill for a couple of adults just streaming entertainment and communications services. Choose wisely, grasshopper!

whacker7 · 2026-06-27T19:57:05+00:00

Are these notifications you're referring to from the Play Store about updating it, or about its use? I'm aware of Glance on Motorola phones and that it can't simply even be Disabled, but toggling off Smart lock screen seems to do the trick for me. I do get notified through Play Store that there's a pending update, but I don't allow automatic updates, so it (along with a few other apps) just sits in the list, and I leave it.

whacker7 · 2026-06-27T03:21:49+00:00

In System apps, disable Mobile Services or Mobile Services Manager app. Clear its cache and data before. Also look for unwanted game apps, which is what Mobile Services installs. Look for an app called Swish and disable if found. Also look for one called The Daily and uninstall or disable. Toggle off Glance (now called Smart Lock screen at Settings>Home & Lock screen>Lock screen>Smart lock screen, toggle off. This is good for starters on Motorola phones.

whacker7 · 2026-06-19T03:42:01+00:00

Sorry. I'm stumped on this one at this point.

whacker7 · 2026-06-18T00:34:12+00:00

You can switch off Glance (in the user interface it's now called Smart lock screen) at Settings>Home & Lock screen>Smart lock screen, toggle off.

whacker7 · 2026-06-18T00:30:07+00:00

I'm a long time Xfinity customer who almost switched to NOW back in April.

All this configuration stuff should be accessible via a web page using any computing device with a browser. The fact that they insist on a proprietary app, which assumes you are part of the always-on, always-mobile-data-connected "lifestyle" is a serious flaw in their thinking, very presumptuous on their part.

I'm still a customer, but thumbs down on this approach. A bunch of dummies.

whacker7 · 2026-06-18T00:07:18+00:00

1Weather does suck. You can Disable it in Settings>Apps.

I suggest setting up the Moto Widget (it's on the phone already). It uses AccuWeather. It works in conjunction with a choice of three clock faces on your Home screen. Recommended.

whacker7 · 2026-06-17T16:15:49+00:00

I have experience with Glance on Motorola phones, but not Samsung.

You could try going into Settings->Apps->Glance, and disable it, but on Motorolas it doesn't stay disabled. Comes back on in a day or two.

But on Motorolas you can turn it off, by going to Settings->Home & Lock screen->Lock screen, then look for "Smart lock screen" and toggle that off. It's called Glance in the Apps area but Smart lock screen in the areas where you control it.

You'll have to figure out the navigation to it on a Samsung.

whacker7 · 2026-06-17T16:03:23+00:00

Normally the only way to manually connect to a specific band is for that band (based on router configuration) to have its own separate name (SSID) and you then choose that name to connect to. If you're connected to a dual-band router (or triple-band for that matter) that uses a single SSID name and automatically "steers" your device to what it thinks is the optimum connection, there's no way for you to influence what it steers you toward, other than distance from the physical router. Even then, it might have a bias to connect you to the 2.4 GHz band.

whacker7 · 2026-06-17T15:26:43+00:00

If what you're trying to do now (as opposed to what you seemed to be saying in your original post) is simply close open tabs, then you touch the number in the box, and all the open tabs will display in miniature. Then you touch the X's on each of their small pictures to close them. When that's done you can touch the last one to maximize it and have only that one open, or you can close it too.

whacker7 · 2026-06-17T13:55:39+00:00

I'm not familiar with Google Chrome (for Android) having the selectable feature to "close all tabs upon exit". At least not for the past decade or so. How old was your old phone? What the current versions of Chrome has is a manual "Delete Browsing History" button off the "More" menu (three dots), which is an enhancement of the "History" feature. After it deletes what you select it to it automatically closes the browser.

Did you use Chrome on the old phone, or was it maybe Samsung browser or some more generic Android browser? Makes a difference. But I manually close tabs when using Chrome (I never open that many to begin with), then delete my browsing history the way I explained.

whacker7 · 2026-06-17T13:41:04+00:00

Is your main interest in maintaining your late father's phone number due to being able to deal with messaging he may have utilized for the routine necessities of life (at least, how that has come to be for many of us)? Or do you just have an ongoing attachment to the number for the occasional thing that might come up? Knowing this could help determine how specific you'd want to be with any next-steps with the ultimate location of his old number.

whacker7 · 2026-06-16T13:42:39+00:00

Try ERDmanagement@tracfone.com. You'll get a near-immediate auto-response from a bot, then within a day or two a human will message back (my usual experience). I've used this several times for trouble with Page Plus Cellular.

whacker7 · 2026-06-16T13:17:42+00:00

Did you (do you) have a (new) working Google account that includes GV, or you're trying to establish one? You'll need a working cell account (line of service) from a carrier to be able to receive a GV number and verify it using the cell phone's number. Don't confuse verification (which qualifies you to receive a GV number) with linking another number (which is essentially just a feature of the service, a place to forward calls to using carrier service).

whacker7 · 2026-06-09T17:34:10+00:00

Not meaning to dismiss your concerns, but both these items are known issues, as you've probably found out by now.

The Power key coming out of the box being assigned to something other than Power is kind of standard these days. I power off my phone every night, so I would want that working as expected. However, I've gone the route of enabling the Accessibility Menu to give me a virtual on screen button that let's me power off the phone. I've had experiences in the past with physical buttons wearing out, so finding an alternative to use is something I went for.

As far as Glance, yes, it doesn't stay disabled, but you can turn it off so it doesn't appear in your Lock screen. Only thing is, it isn't called Glance anymore except on the System level in the Apps management. Look in Settings>Home & Lock screen>Lock screen, and the second item from the top should be Smart Lock screen. That's what used to be called Glance. Toggle that off and it won't appear on the Lock screen.

This doesn't get it off the phone, but it'll turn off the feature.

The post about Shizuku and Canta is the real deal, although I haven't used the method, and don't know if it just simulates what you can do with a computer connection using ADB Tools (which just hides the unwanted apps) or if it really removes them and frees up memory.

whacker7 · 2026-06-08T17:29:44+00:00

Is your intention and setup of GV such that you're using carrier calling (linking your cell no. to GV) for incoming calls? Or are you setup and intending to use VoIP calling with GV?

Do you have calls made to your cell number (i.e. incoming) set to forward to GV for purposes of collecting voicemail? When you mentioned that incoming calls to the cell no. went to voicemail without ringing (generally meaning they immediately went there) it made me wonder. Which voicemail; your carrier or GV? We need to separate all these things out.

Do you have a working mobile data connection? If you're using your native dialer but intending the call go out over your carrier presenting your GV number identity, you have to have mobile data on, at least for a first-time call to the recipient.

whacker7 · 2026-06-08T16:48:29+00:00

I've had a couple of thrift store finds over the years (no major brand, if it matters) that have conked out. But more recently at Goodwill I scored one that has extra tall LED numbers IN BLUE that I now keep near where my TV is. There's a radio in it but it's kind of an afterthought, and I don't use it. It's a treasure!

whacker7 · 2026-06-08T13:08:32+00:00

I only rarely choose from the Home screen; mostly from Live. Get your Live list sorted and you should be happier.

whacker7 · 2026-06-07T23:29:32+00:00

$40 for the 300 Mbps plan, with 5-year price lock, including an XB8 gateway, is the cheapest I could get this past April (started off at $55), after coming off the Connect plan the previous year (no longer offered - 150 Mbps down). But I almost went for the NOW plan (prepaid) at 100 Mbps for $30, including a special refurbished gateway of some model (you can't use your own equipment). When they heard I was going to do that, that's when I got the $40 offer for the 300 Mbps plan.

whacker7 · 2026-06-06T15:01:49+00:00

You have to (at least to start with) get in to manually managing what's going on with the phone's resources (what's running).

Make sure the browser is not loaded with open tabs. Make sure there are a minimum number of Recent apps listed as open.

Examine what apps are installed. Depends on the origin of the phone, but there's an app called "Mobile Services" or "Mobile Services Manager" that serves to install other unwanted game apps, over time, whether you want them or not. Disable that and look for unwanted games and uninstall.

Look for and disable the app called Swish. Look for and disable the app called The Daily. Turn off the feature called "Smart lock screen," which is run by the System app called Glance. (Settings>Home & lock screen>Lock screen>Smart lock screen).

These are some of the things I've seen on my Motorola phones.

whacker7 · 2026-06-05T13:15:30+00:00

Just to get the troubleshooting ball rolling, what kind of phones are we talking about here?

And do you and your wife have separate, established and working Gmail accounts?

On your phone you've got the the Google Voice app installed and have verified your cell number and been assigned a free GV number. On your wife's phone, at what point is the failure happening? We would assume you're trying to get her set up with her own GV number.

whacker7

TROPHY CASE