Every smartphone has a web browser by default. However, you can also use a different web browser application on your smartphone, depending on your preferences. Fortunately, most tasks are performed in the same way in different web browsers.
For smartphone users, Chrome is most often the default browser. However, you can easily switch to any other browser you prefer. Most importantly, almost all web browsers are free to download from the Play Store (or Apple's App Store if you're an iOS user).
If you don't know how to use smartphone browsers effectively, here is the guide you can consider in this regard:
Are you a complete beginner in smartphone technology? And want to learn how to use the smartphone browser? I have a beginner's guide for you to follow in this regard.
So, here we go:
Register yourself in the browser
The first time you open a web browser application on your smartphone, you will see a registration page. Here you can register with your email address. This is optional, but if you register, you can access sources like web history, saved passwords, bookmarks, and others across devices.
Surfing the web with the smartphone browser
When you open the browser app, you are automatically redirected to the home page. To visit a specific website, you can type it into the search box. Then click the Go button on your Google screen (or whatever search engine you use) to start the search.
A few practical tips for surfing on the smartphone:
- Tap the refresh icon (usually a symbol of two arrows forming a circle) to reload the web page. If you don't see it directly on the screen, you can click on the menu icon (usually an icon of three dashes or dots on top of each other) to find the refresh icon there.
- To stop a page from loading, click the (X) icon that appears to the right of the address bar.
- You can also pan the web page by dragging your finger across the touchscreen. This way you can pan left, right, up and down.
- To zoom in or out, just double-tap the screen. To zoom out, you can also pinch the screen. To zoom in, you can spread two fingers.
- If you want to read a web page in landscape mode, just tilt the phone to the page (make sure the "rotate screen" option is not disabled). Then double-tap the screen so that the text is easy to read.
- To go forward, you can touch the forward button on the screen. The back button can also take you to the previously searched page.
- Understand the navigation keys to get the most out of your smartphone browser.
Manage and open new tabs in the browser
Most browsers allow you to open searched links in new tabs. You can easily open multiple links in different tabs in the same browser window. This way you avoid cluttering up multiple browser windows and having to frantically jump from one tab to another.
But you can easily open any of your favorite web links in a new tab by right-clicking on the link. Then click "Open link in a new tab" here.
(Always remember that the exact wording may vary from browser to browser. So make sure you choose what your browser offers).
If you want to close the tab, just click the cross icon found there. You can also click the "Add" button to open a new empty tab.
How to access the settings in the smartphone browser?
Open your browser app from your smartphone and tap More in the menu bar (usually an icon of three dashes or dots on top of each other) and then Settings. There, click on the Privacy and Security tab to customize your browser settings to your liking.
Here you will find various setting options such as:
- Preload pages for faster browsing
- Clear history
- Manage Your Google Account
- Customize your chrome profile
- Manage notifications, payment methods, passwords and more.
You can easily click your favorite tabs here and adjust the default settings to your needs. Here you can also manage your downloads, change page settings, language, privacy, themes and much more.
Additional tips
Saving bookmarks
You may have opened a page that you want to access again later. However, it's difficult to remember the exact address of the website if you need it again later. Adding this page to your bookmarks, also known as favorites, can help you here.
Adding bookmarks or favorites is a good way to organize and save certain pages to visit them again and again. All you have to do is find the star icon on a tab and select that icon to save a bookmark for your current page.
However, if you want to unmark the page from the bookmarks, just click the star icon again and then click Remove to remove the page from the favorites.
Check history
The browser can save your previously viewed pages in the history. You can visit the history page of your web browser to check the pages you have visited. To view your browser's history, click on the menu icon, tap on the History tab here and the details of your previously visited page will be displayed.
To clear your browsing history, you can simply tap "Clear browser data" when you see your browsing history. Check the "Clear browser data" tab and press the "Delete" button to complete the action.
Downloading files and images
In several cases, the links you are looking for point to a file that you can download to your system. When you click on these links, the file may be downloaded automatically. You can also go to the menu, click Downloads, and easily access your automatically downloaded files.
If you want to save images to your phone, you can simply press and hold on the image and then select "Save Image" or "Download Image". Your selected image will be automatically saved to Downloads.
Then you can just go to your mobile gallery to access and use those images.
So, these were some of the basics on how to use your smartphone's browsers. I hope this guide has helped you understand various things. However, if you have any question that is not mentioned here, let me know.
EN 
DE 