Hello all,
New to the forum so have a few questions about my shiny new Xperia Compact , thought it best to create one thread with them rather than clog the place up. 
It’s a great phone, and I’m much preferring it over my old iPhone 4, but it’s got some niggles that I’m hoping people can help me with. Some may be down to Android in general, some might be down to Sony’s extra gubbins they’ve included. My phone set up is pretty much the default, although I’ve swapped out the stock launcher for Nova Launcher. Only real change I’ve made.
So, let’s get cracking!
First up; The general theme of the phone is white background, black text. Can this be changed? I *much* prefer black backgrounds with white text, and it saves on battery like too.
Secondly; One thing I *really* miss about my iPhone was notifications for texts. Given that my phone is right in front of me on my desk for 8 hours a day, and most texts are short, I can read a whole text without moving, just a quick. At the moment I just get a noise plus a small vibration; I’ve got to pick up my phone, unlock it, go to my messages... etc. Very annoying! If this can’t be fixed in the settings (Why not?!) then I assume a widget can fix this, but I can’t for the life of me find a decent one. Can anyone recommend one? (Basically when I get a text can the phone “light up” with a widget on the lock screen telling me what the text says?)
Next up; When I get a phone call I get the “slide to answer” option, and it works except the phone ALWAYS switches to loudspeaker by default! Meaning I have to answer, turn off loudspeaker and then talk. ??
Lastly; keyboard. I used the Xperia keyboard for a while, but swapped out to the default Google Android keyboard… however it’s too basic. I tried Swype but the layout there isn’t great. Turns out the best keyboard is… the xperia one! There’s one issue though that both the default Google board and the Swype keyboard address and the Xperia one doesn’t: “Long hold delay”. On the Xperia keyboard you have to hold a button for what feels like an age (Reality, probably 500ms) but with a bit of testing I found that I want my delay to be about 130ms. Considerably shorter. Can the “long hold delay” be altered on the Xperia keyboard?
Oh, as an aside, this game with both “Walkman” and the default “google play music” thing. Any thoughts on which is better? The only difference I’ve noticed so far is that the Google Music has a ncie full on Widget (2x4) where as the Walkman one only has shortcuts…
Thanks for any help, I’ll probably have plenty more questions as I get more used to the phone.
Lutzie
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Really?! That's shocking. I'd have thought they'd have put in an option to change that given that Android is about personalisation, the fact that some people have visual impairments and can read better with certain colours (People with dyslexia for example) and that even Apple, yes Apple, allow you to at least invert colours! That's pretty poor from Sony. 😕
Thank you for the app suggestions, I'll have a mooch at them tonight.
I don't understand what you mean by "that's true as long as you have your phone connected to a Dock"... My phone frequently (In fact, always I think) answers in loudspeaker mode. And in fact this thread here lists many many users with the exact same problem. Multiple solutions, some work, some don't. Erm... yeah. 
Any idea about the alter the "long hold delay" time?
I also greatly missed lockscreen notifications coming from a HTC phone, which handle these nicely. Sony didn't really make an effort here at all
But as an excellent substitute I highly recommend the NiLS Notifications Lock Screen app with the Floating Panel addon and the Zebra theme (light or dark). Floating Panel isn't an actual lockscreen widget, but you can place it anywhere on the lockscreen, tap items for previewing message content, swipe for actions like Mark as Read, open in app or dismiss, etc. Very customizable (down to individual app level) and looks great on the Z1C. It would look even better if Sony didn't put the "Swipe up or down to unlock" message so high on the screen so there would be more room for the notifications ....
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Wow buddy, that is a great advice...
I never bothered to look for a Lock screen notification app... but your post spiced my curiosity and I like it...
@gtop wrote:I also greatly missed lockscreen notifications coming from a HTC phone, which handle these nicely. Sony didn't really make an effort here at all
But as an excellent substitute I highly recommend the NiLS Notifications Lock Screen app with the Floating Panel addon and the Zebra theme (light or dark). Floating Panel isn't an actual lockscreen widget, but you can place it anywhere on the lockscreen, tap items for previewing message content, swipe for actions like Mark as Read, open in app or dismiss, etc. Very customizable (down to individual app level) and looks great on the Z1C. It would look even better if Sony didn't put the "Swipe up or down to unlock" message so high on the screen so there would be more room for the notifications ....
Links:
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