Google Account introduction and create account

One sign-in for Google services (and android phone or tablet). Access all your data through the account and benefit from signing into Chrome by having Google Password Manager synced and available on all devices, Google Search – to see your history, Google Maps – for your timeline, YouTube – to subscribe to channels and more. The most popular service is Gmail (which includes Contacts and Calendar) – there are around 1.5 billion active Gmail users in the world. Every Android phone (around 3 billion worldwide), has a Google Account for Play Store apps, back up to Google Drive and Google Photos. To see your Google Account information, tap or click on your profile icon in a Google app or webpage (once signed in) or go to www.accounts.google.com and sign in

First decide on the type of email address you would like for Gmail (your full name or short initials) and write it down (add ‘.’ or numbers to make it unique). Decide on a long unique password that you can remember. Go to www.accounts.google.com, click on ‘Create account’ and follow the steps. Complete the Google Account pages in the Tomtie Toolkit

Once signed-in, go through the list of ‘Google Account tasks’ and update the pages in the Tomtie Toolkit. Knowing how easy it is to access the information that Google stores for us means we can make the most of it. Subscriptions are easily started and stopped, we can see (and delete) where we have been in Timeline, Google Photos have location information, our search history is available and more

Home is the overview webpage for the Google Account. Use this page to manage your info, privacy and security to make Google work better for you. See the most important things summaried. Click ‘Learn more’ to learn about your Google Account. Google makes money by the paid for adverts which are which are – search ads, display ads and shopping ads

Add a photo to personalise your account and manage your ‘Basic info’, who can see it, then check ‘Contact info’, ‘Addresses’, your profiles and other info and preferences

Scroll down to Password, click on it to change to a new password and update the page in the Tomtie Toolkit. See last changed date

Take the ‘Privacy Check-up’, to choose the type of ads you get and look through your ‘History settings’ and more

Plan what happens to your data if you can’t use your Google Account. Go to Google Account ❯ ‘Data and privacy’ then scroll down the page to ‘More options’ ❯ ‘Make a plan for your digital legacy’ and complete the options. Update the page in the Tomtie Toolkit

go to Google Account ❯ ‘Data and privacy’ ❯ scroll down to ‘Data from apps and services you use’ ❯ ‘Apps and services’ ❯ ‘Content saved from Google services’ ❯ Android Backups and click on a device – see ‘find my phone’

Complete the ‘Security Check-up’, make sure that ‘2-Step Verification’ is turned on and verification second steps are added and scroll down to the end of the page. Update the page in the Tomtie Toolkit. Tips. Have a trusted person’s phone set to verify you when you don’t have access to your phone. Have a second email address set as ‘Recovery’ email so if Google detects unusual activity, they will reach you on that

this works via Chrome and on an Android phone/tablet or iPhone/iPad. Go to Google Account ❯ Security ❯ Password Manager. Sign into Chrome and turn on sync to have web passwords added and autofilled. Android phones with autofill set to Google will add new passwords securely to make signing into an app easier

See ‘Your family’ on google to share Google services with children living at home. Check your contacts in Google and share your real-time location from a mobile (or stop sharing here) and more

Manage your payment info, transactions, recurring payments and reservations (e.g. Google One storage of 200GB for £24.99/year, YouTube Premium or Fitbit premium). This is an easy way to start and cancel subscriptions

Go to www.google.com/android/find and sign in with the Google Account then follow the steps