Interacting with the handheld

To interact with the handheld using the touchscreen, use your finger to tap, swipe, or drag items on the touchscreen, to scroll up or down, and to enter information.

  • Tap. Tap the screen once to open items and select options. Use the keyboard input panel to enter typed text by tapping keys on the on-screen keyboard.

  • Tap-hold. Tap-hold your finger on an item to see a list of actions available for that item. On the pop-up menu that appears, tap the action you want to perform.

  • Drag. Hold your finger on an item for a moment and then, without lifting your finger, move your finger on the screen until you reach the target position. Drag in a list to select multiple items. Drag items on the Home screens to reposition them.

  • Swipe or slide. Quickly move your finger across the surface of the screen, without pausing when you first touch it, to scroll a page or a list up or down.

  • Double tap. Tap quickly twice on a webpage, map, or other screen to zoom. Double-tapping after pinching to zoom in some apps, such as Browser, reflows a column of text to fit the width of the screen.

  • Pinch. In some apps (such as Browser and Photos), place two fingers on the screen at once and pinch them together to zoom out or spread them apart to zoom in.

  • Rotate the screen. On most screens, the orientation of the screen rotates with the device as you turn it from upright to its side and back again. You can turn this feature on and off, see Display settings.

The handheld has the following buttons:

Button

Press

Press-hold

Android Home

Opens the Home screen. If you are viewing a left or right extended Home screen, it opens the central Home screen.

 

Android Apps

Shows a screen with all open applications.

 

Android Back

Opens the previous screen you were working in. If the onscreen keyboard is open, the keyboard closes.

 

Power

Turns off the screen.

Opens a menu with options for reboot/restart, and for powering off the device.

Volume Up / Down (left side of device)

Controls the volume of music, spoken directions, and other audio.

Quickly increases the volume to maximum or minimum.

Customized (3 buttons; 1 on the left side, and 2 on the right side of the device)

See Assigning apps to the programmable buttons.