Help and how-to

Windows Phone provides lots of ways for you to personalize your phone, and it has built-in accessibility features that can make it easier to see, hear, and use your phone.

Here are some basic ways to personalize your phone for ease of use:

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  You can adjust your phone's Theme and visual scheme to make it easier to see. You can adjust the brightness, too: on Start, flick left to the App list, and tap Settings > Brightness. For more info, see Make my phone easy to read.
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  If you want to use your phone with a hearing aid, see How do I use my phone with a hearing aid? for more info.
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  If you want to use your phone with a TTY, see Use my phone with a TTY.

Some other things you can do:

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  If you want to make calls, search the web, open apps, or listen to text messages hands-free (or eyes-free!), see Use Speech on my phone to learn about all the different Speech commands you can use to tell your phone what to do. (Note that Speech may not be available in your country or region.)
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  You can use text prediction to help with typing—just start typing and your phone suggests words based on what you've already typed. To learn more, see Keyboard tips.
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  You can use touch gestures to zoom in and out and make things on the screen easier to see when you're looking at email or browsing the Internet. To learn more, see Gestures: flick, pan, and stretch.
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  The hardware buttons on your phone—Back , Start , and Search —can help you find your way around it. See The three buttons: Back, Start, and Search.
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  You can change the sounds that your phone uses. To learn more, see Ringtones, sounds, and volume.
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  If you have an accessory that includes Bluetooth, see Pair my phone with a Bluetooth accessory.
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  If you frequently talk to or email someone in your contacts, you can pin their contact to Start for quick access. For more info, see Pin things to Start.
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  You can pin lots of other things to Start, too. Make Start on your phone work for you by moving, adding, or removing Tiles until it shows the things that are most important to you. To learn more, see Everything goes back to Start.