Using a new smartphone for the first time is a mixture of excitement and impatience. Everything is a surprise, especially if you changed to a manufacturer that has a completely different interface than the one you're used to. However, these little surprises can turn into frustration and annoyance real quick if we’re not a fan of the new features. That’s why I’m going to show you how to deactivate five stock options that drive us mad.

1. Deactivate touch response sounds and vibrations

When I’m using a smartphone for the first time there are few things that I like less than touch feedback. The vibrations and sounds that imitate the reaction of a real button just make me nervous, so it’s always the first thing I turn off. Besides badly imitating reality the only thing it actually does is waste battery.

To stop the sounds and vibrations of the touch response:
 

• Go to Settings > Sounds > Other sounds.
• Once there you can deactivate: keyboard sounds, screen lock sounds, charging sounds, touch sounds, touch vibration, etc.

Note: If the smartphone is going to be used by an older adult who doesn’t have a keen sense of touch, it is recommended to leave the vibration activated so it’s easier to tell when the screen is touched.

In the beginning, everything vibrates. / © AndroidPIT

2. Deactivate keyboard vibration when you type

Ok, you’ve deactivated all the touch feedback on the system, so why does it vibrate when I type? Well, the keyboard has a mind of its own. To deactivate keyboard vibrations, you’ll have to head to the settings on the keyboard itself, whether you still use the stock one or one that you’ve installed.

• Go to Settings > Language and input > Virtual keyboard.
• Choose your keyboard.
• In preferences, deactivate ‘Keyboard sound’ and ‘Keyboard vibration’.

Did you turn off all the vibrations but your keyboard keeps vibrating? / © AndroidPIT

3. Rein in auto-correct

Often times auto-correct is more a hinder than a help. It would be perfect if it would just recommend words instead of directly changing what we’ve written after we hit the space bar and putting whatever it feels like in there.

The auto-correct that comes stock is quite aggressive so you’ll probably have to deactivate it before you continue installing apps.

To deactivate auto-correct follow these steps:
 

• Go to Settings > Language and input > Virtual keyboard
• Choose the keyboard you’re using.
• In the keyboard settings, press ‘Text Correction’.
• Now, deactivate the option that says ‘Auto replace.’

4. Disable all the preinstalled apps that you don’t use

A majority of manufacturers load their devices with apps from their own services. However, you might never use those services so you’ve got apps on your phone that are wasting resources for nothing.

Every single manufacturer app is going to want to update and some may even be running in the background without you knowing it. You can’t completely uninstall them (unless your phone's rooted), but you can put them on hibernate.

We have a whole article on how to disable preinstalled apps, but I’ll give you a brief overview of the main steps here:

• Go to Settings > Apps
• Choose the app you want to disable (avoid structural apps like Google services or other apps that aren’t in the app drawer).
• In the app information, you’ll find a disable button.
• You can also choose to deactivate notifications if you’d like.

Say goodbye to all the apps you never use. / © AndroidPIT

5. Turn off the boot animation

Every smartphone has a little animation when the device is powered up and some come with the companies jingle or some cliché type music. If you’re at home, then it’s no big deal, but if you’re restarting your phone in public, it can be a bit embarrassing.

Deactive the boot sound, so you don’t have to listen to “Hello Moto” or the company’s jingle anymore by following these steps:
 

• Head to Settings > Sounds
• Depending on the manufacturer, there’ll be different options that you should deactivate. For Motorola it’s called “Power up sound” and for Huawei/Honor ‘Start up sound.’
• It’s not quite that easy for Samsung users but we’ve got a couple of options. For non-root users, put your device in silent mode before you restart it or turn it off, or you can deactivate all sounds in Settings > Accessibility > Hearing. For root users, you can delete the audio files in \System\Etc\ PowerOn.wav for power up and \System\Media\Audio\ui\ shutdown.ogg for shutdown.

Bonus: Changing ringtones

This is something that when the first phones with polyphonic ringtones came out it took us a whole afternoon to decide which one we wanted. Now, we don’t even pay attention to it, but you can personalize it a ton if you'd like to. You could even make your favorite song your ringtone.

If you don’t change your ringtone than your phone will sound just like every other phone straight from the factory. That’s why I strongly urge you to find something new, especially if you have an iPhone. Look for something with a bit of style.