Android is hands-down the most popular and flexible mobile operating systems around due to its power packed features. And the best thing about it is, it lets you customize the device as per your choice.
So a seemingly simple Android phone can become a melting pot of technology and creativity with the addition of the right apps from the Google Play Store.
So, here’s the list of 21 hidden Android tips and hidden features that you mustn’t miss. The good thing about these features is that whether it's a OnePlus device or a Samsung phone, odds are that you'll end up finding most of these under the Settings menu, regardless of whether it's a Custom UI or Stock Android.
1. Quick Notification Access
Starting with the most used feature in the new age Android phones — the quick settings menu. What do you do when you need it real quick?
Normally, a downward swipe brings down first the notification drawer and then the Quick settings menu.
To access it in a super quick, use both of your fingers to make a downward swipe on the home screen. The Quick Settings menu and the notification drawer will be available in a jiffy.
2. Display Touch Points
In few of the how-to videos on YouTube, it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact place where the demonstrator is touching on his screen.
Solution to the above issue: Enable the display touch points. This will display a white dot on places where you have touched.
To enable this option, you will have to take a dive into the Developer option. Head over to Input and switch on Show Touches.
To access the developer option on your device, head over to Settings > About and tap on the Build number seven times.
3. Reduce Eye Strain
From built-in PDF converter to blue-light filter, Android covers most of the aspects that tempt you to skip third-party app installations.
So the next time you are in an experimental mood, give a shot to the built-in grayscale mode. Once enabled, it wipes out the bright colors and replaces it with a monochromatic hue. A scaled down version of iPhone's Night Shift feature if you ask me.
And like TouchPoints, this one’s too lurking inside the Developer option. We all know that bright screens are the recipe for eye fatigue so this nifty trick will save your eyes from further damage. What’s more, it also helps in saving the phone's battery life.
4. Restrict Data Usage
It’s a known fact that almost all the Android apps on our phones perform certain background activities like data-sync, update activities to fix bugs or to roll out new features.
Surely, these are important and shouldn’t be ignored
but what’s more important is you to know when these activities are being carried out. You wouldn’t want Google Photos to sync 200 high-res pics over cellular data, would you?
You can long press on the app and select app info from the pop-up menu.
Once this switch is enabled, the background activities will cease to occur over the cellular network and will only occur once you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.
5. Save a Web Page as PDF
Chrome is among the most used web browsers today, but how do we make the most of it?
Especially when you are off the grid? This neat little trick for Android devices will require a bit of advance planning to pull it off, but let me assure you, it’s a foolproof idea when it comes to converting a web page to a pdf.
So before you head off, gather all the articles that you wish to read and open it through Chrome. Now all you need to do is head over to Share > Print and then save the web page as PDF
6. Easy Cross-Referencing
Browsing through contents in Chrome should be fun and shouldn’t challenge the sanity of anyone. You might be thinking, why am I making this argument?
Say, there’s a situation where you are working on a document and you have opened a couple of sites for cross-referencing. Isn’t it a pain to navigate through the sites at the same time?
Well, we are talking Android here and there’s always a workaround. Long-press on the address bar and swipe left and right. You will be able to glide smoothly through the open tabs.
7. See All the Open Tabs
Pressing the home button is what one would normally do to exit Chrome or for that matter, any app. In Chrome, there’s a slight catch — it closes the main app but the tabs still remain open until they are closed manually. Last time I checked, I had over 12 open tabs.
So, how to see all the open tabs easily. Well, Google apps contain a handful of hidden tricks up their sleeves. All you need to do is tap on the address bar and swipe down to see the list.
Or you can just tap on the number beside the address bar and the rest of the job is taken care by tapping on the close button.
8. Browse Through the File Directory
Bet there are a lot of third-party apps that let you see the file contents of the phone memory, but what if you are a little low on space and can’t go about installing a new app?
The solution is fairly simple — turn to Chrome.
Just type file:///sdcard/ and all the phone contents — old & new — will be displayed on an index form.
9. See Notification Even After Clearing Them
Clearing notifications are in the muscle memory of many of us, but in the process of clearing out these annoying app notifications, most of the time an important one gets cleared (talk about Murphy's laws).
So how do you see the old notification? Surely, there are lots of notification apps that help you in accessing the same, but what good is an OS if it can’t help you in such situations.
So here we are, presenting a nifty built-in Android trick to view all the notifications that have made their way to your device.
Long-press on the home screen, tap on Widgets and place the Settings shortcut on the home screen. Upon opening it, select notification and you are done.
So, go ahead and unleash the full potential of your Android device and make the experience worthwhile. In case I have missed out on any cool hidden feature or Android tips, feel free to share it across.
10. Set Wifi Sleep Policy
Another hidden feature is the Wi-Fi sleep policy in the advanced Wi-Fi settings. In a normal situation, when the screen turns off the phone switches over to cellular data. And when this happens, the phone battery life also takes a hit (as Wi-Fi consumes less juice than cellular data).
In such situations, the Wi-Fi sleep policy should be set to Never, so that the change-over never happens (even when the phone is idle).
To enable this feature, open the advanced Wi-Fi settings menu and set the Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep to Never.
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