Moto G Phone Guide

Moto G How-to Guide

How to use Motorola Assist on Moto G?

by 191 Comments

motorola-assist-on-moto-gUpdate: If Motorola Assist does not read messages in home or driving mode (i.e.. it does not respond to your voice) after it asks you say Listen, please follow this guide to fix it.

What is Motorola Assist on Moto G?

Motorola Assist on Moto G is one of the most useful apps you can find.  It was provided by Motorola and, of course, it works on Motorola devices.

Motorola Assist on Moto G simply suggests actions to automate tasks, based on how you use your device. The app  works like your personal assistant, and works quietly.

Driving Assist is not available in the Motorola Assist on Moto G

The  Motorola Assist in Moto X and Droid (Droid MAXX, Droid Mini, and Droid Ultra) has three assists: driving, sleeping and meeting.

The Driving Assist lets you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel. Meeting and Sleeping will eliminate interruptions unless it’s an emergency.

But in Moto G, the Motorola Assist only comes with 2 assists: Sleeping and Meeting. The Driving assist is NOT available on  Motorola Assist on Moto G.

The explanation from Motorola is due to hardware limitation in  Moto G. So, do not waste time to find driving assist in your Moto G. Even if you manage to get the APK file, Driving Assist would not work.

Sleeping Assist on Moto G

motorola-assist-on-moto-g-sleeping-assistOnce you let your Moto G knows your normal sleeping time, Motorola Assist on Moto G will automatically silence your phone. of course, if you want, certain callers can still get through if needed.

You need setup your normal sleeping time first in the Motorola Assist on Moto G. Then , you can enable “Silence”  to turn on the sleeping assist..

If you want,  by tapping the “>” button (in the right column of  Silence, see attached image), you can create exceptions for favorite contacts, or someone who calling you twice within 5 mins.

If you change the phone volume when it is in sleep mode,  the sleeping assist will stop working and un-silence the phone .

If you manually silence your phone when Moto G is in sleep mode, you must un-silence the phone the next day. In other words, Motorola Assist on Moto G will not un-silence your phone if the silencing is set by you manually.

Sleeping Assist only silences the notification and ringer. All other apps and … Read the rest

Moto G wireless display: the problem and the solution

by 54 Comments

moto-g-wireless-displayWhat is Wireless Display?

As some Android users know that Miracast is officially supported since Jelly Bean 4.2. Most Android phone manufactures usually name this feature as wireless display. Of Course, some vendor give it a different name for marketing purpose, for example, Samsung uses the name of “screen mirroring” for Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3.

Moto G wireless display simply does not work

Moto G come with Jelly Bean 4.3. In last December, Motorola updated the phone to Android KitKat 4.4.2. But you may find out that there is no option to enable Moto G wireless display no matter it is in Jelly Bean 4.3 or KitKat 4.4. There is no way to get wireless display in Moto G.

Of course, if we check the brother of Moto G, you can find out that Moto X fully supports wireless display.

So, missing Moto G wireless display is not an inadvertent mistake; it is done deliberately.

Why Moto G wireless display is disabled?

The question is why Motorola disable this very useful feature.  We haven’t got any official clear answer from Motorola on disabling Moto G wireless display.

The untold truth about Moto G wireless display is that wireless display is enabled in hardware level, but disabled in software level. It is actually due to hardware limitations.

Motorola chose to disable the Moto G wireless display for two reasons:

  1. WiFi connection and Miracast cannot be used simultaneously in Moto G. If the wireless display is enabled (it uses WiFi direct per Miracast standard), the WiFi connection to your router will be shutdown and therefore you have to use mobile data for internet connections.  Some Sony devices (2013) suffer from this issue either. To avoid negative feedback, and inadvertent usage of mobile date (remember that Moto G is targeted at users with moderate mobile data usage), Motorola has  to disable this feature.
  2. Even you manage to enable Moto G wireless display (root is needed, and it is not a simple task. Do NOT ask me how to do this. I do not show things that I do not recommend), the performance is not so good. There is noticeable delay and sound sync seems not good as well. Probably due to hardware issue, or Motorola did not do any optimization, or both  (because it will be anyway disabled).

Alternative solutions

… Read the rest