Welcome to What’s On My Phone, a weekly column where we will be snooping in on people’s smartphones and figure out how they use them, what apps they are using, and why plus tips too.
We’ll include new entries with different and notable people about what’s on their smartphones and if they are a reflection of their personalities or not.
This week, we’re featuring Dickson Otieno who runs Techish Kenya.
This Q/A has been edited for length and clarity.
What smartphone are you using and why?
Like many of the people featured here, I often go between different phones at different times for review purposes.
Currently, I am using the OPPO A93 which I really love. It has my main SIM card, and WhatsApp account. I love it because of its really thin body, nice display and surprisingly great battery life.
I am also carrying the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which I have grown to actually like – but can’t permanently switch to because of certain restrictions I find with iOS. I carry it mainly because of its great cameras that really help me with my YouTube reviews.
However, I hate carrying it when travelling because it means having to carry an extra charging cable, instead of one type-C cable.
Let’s start from your homescreen – how and why have you arranged your apps the way they are?
With the OPPO A93, I have three layers of apps with Telegram, Play Store, WhatsApp, and Google Photos on the top. YouTube, Twitter, Google News and Instagram are on the bottom.
On the Dock, I have the dialer app, Google Messages, Chrome and the default Camera. Over time, I have found I mostly launch these apps whenever I pick up my phone. So, I have them at the home page to enable quick access without having to go to the App drawer.
If I need something else, I just swipe down and search for it.
On the iPhone, I pushed every app to the App Library. So, I only have one page where I have placed three widgets: the weather widget, recent Apple Music widget, and Siri App suggestions widget.
And believe it or not, Siri has gotten really good at guessing which App I will open on pick up, so I rarely have to swipe down to search for another app.
What’s on your lock screen wallpaper/homescreen wallpaper?
My lockscreen has one of OPPO’s auto-changing wallpaper pack. They’re mostly colourful abstract photos. They really pop with the AMOLED display.
On the iPhone, I have one wallpaper for both the lockscreen and homescreen. It is a simple picture of waves on the ocean. Even if I wanted to change it, it’d be such a hustle because iOS is like that.
How do you handle notifications?
On Android, I have muted most social media apps from loud notifications. Let them just be on the notification tray when I need them. Things like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp are even hidden from the lockscreen, because I like it that way.
On the iPhone I often say no to allowing notifications whenever I’ve installed a new app. So I rarely see them unless I open the app.
Also, I know to remind myself to switch between RING and VIBRATE whenever I am out of my house.
What customisation tweaks have you done on your phone?
Either I am boring, or Android has come a long way. I used to do a lot, nowadays, I just go with what comes. The only thing I’ve changed is navigation opting to use the swiping gestures.
On the iPhone, I have done nothing else apart from what I’ve already shared above.
What is the app you use to have fun and unwind? What other apps apart from social media apps do you spend the most time on?
Can one say Apple Music? Because I often have it running on most of my devices, be it a phone, tablet or laptop whenever I am feeling free. That counts both as unwinding and fun?
I also have Kindle where I carry my full library with me and try to cover more pages in my books whenever free.
