Nowadays a smartphone is the most significant stuff in our day to day life. Though Android vs IOS always a hot topic among the customers, google’s mobile operating system Android has made these smartphones much smarter for sure. It is well known for its smart features like enriched play store with day to day life useful apps like Google map, social media apps, games, call blocker apps, device monitoring apps, etc.
An interesting and very useful feature of Android is its recovery mode where you can do a lot of things, tweak different settings, etc. But most of the cool features of android are known to you and some are hidden. Since your time is valuable, it is hard for you to look for those features, we are presenting 11 hidden features of android that nobody will tell you.
Before we start there is a little disclaimer: Android operating system always gets updated to offer new features, and the features we are going to talk about are mostly available in Android 7.0 Nougat.
Table of Contents
Hidden Features of Android
1. Recover Lost Notification
It happens many times, you want to read a notification but you swipe that out by mistake. Don’t worry. Google has made a solution for us.
To recover lost notification, a long tap in your phone’s empty space on the home screen. Then go through the widgets and find settings shortcut and place it into your home screen. Then open the settings shortcut and choose the notification log option. Now you are ready to find all your notification histories.
Long-tap in the home screen’s empty place>widgets>settings shortcut>notification log.
2. Make Lock Screen Disable at Home
We cannot deny that lock screens are great, they keep our personal information safe. But when you are at home I think many of us don’t need a screen lock. Sometimes unlocking the lock screen becomes a boring task. But when you have an android device this problem can be solved. From now your phone will be automatically unlocked after you reach your home safe and sound.
To disable the lock screen, go to settings then tap on security, after that select smart lock and choose your home location and set that in your trusted place. Now, whenever you will come to your trusted location your screen lock will go for taking rest.
Settings>security>smart lock>trusted place>add location
3. Customize Font Size
We all know google’s first priority is its customers. They always think of their customers and set various options in their services for their customers. Many of us have a weak power of vision. So, Google has added a customizable option for font size in android.
To customize the font size, go to phone settings then tap display. After that select font in display menu and set the font size as your need.
Settings>display>font size
4. Type One-Handedly
It is known to us how much you love to type in your phone one-handedly. But with the passage of time phone screens are increasing in size and it is getting harder to type in your device one-handedly. Thanks to google for its customizable keyboard, now you can customize your keyboard size according to your needs and operate it one-handedly.
To customize google keyboard first open “Gboard”, google keyboard app; if you have this app downloaded that’s good; but if you don’t have, this app has to be downloaded, which you can find in play store. Now go to preference and active one-handed mode, there will be two options for you, right-handed and left-handed. Choose as you like.
Gboard>preference>one-handed mode
You can do the same thing while you are typing. Just long-press the backslash key and there will be an icon of one-handed mode, swipe your finger to the option. When the one-handed mode will be activated, you can change that little keyboard’s side (in left or right) through the arrow shown there.
5. Active Developer Option
The developer option is one of the most interesting features of android. It shows us how much customizable android operating system is. But it’s a pretty much-hidden feature so, many of us don’t even know about this. You are able to do so many things by developer option like desktop backup password, stay awake option, mobile data always active, and many others.
Well to active “Developer Option” first go to the settings and then click in about the phone. In about the phone you will find a build number. Keep taping the build number till the massage is shown “now you are a developer”. After that come back to settings and you can find a new option in settings called “Developer Option”.
Settings>about phone>build number>tap till the message
6. System Ui Tuner
It is also a feature of great importance when you like to decorate your phone. In this menu, there are many options like battery percentage, power notification control, and enabling or disabling icons in the status bar, etc. Well before telling you how to enable system UI tuner, there is a quick note, all phone manufacturers do not add this option on their phone. So, just keep that in mind.
To enable system UI tuner, scroll down your status bar and long press in settings icon till it vibrates. When it will be done you will find the system UI tuner menu in your phone settings.
Scroll down status bar>long press settings icon till vibrate
7. Force Apps to Work in Multi Window
In android 7.0 there is a new feature called multi-window, and you guys are familiar with it. You can use two different apps at the same time by this feature. Besides there is a little problem, every app does not support multi-window. But the good news is there is a solution, and that is you can force apps to work with multi-window.
Well, to force apps to work with multi-window you have to activate developer option (which we have taught you before). So, now go to the developer option and activate the ‘’force activities to be resizable’’. If it is done now you can use any app in a multi-window but take care of one thing the apps you are forcing to work with multi-window can show some disturbances, because they are not intended to work in that way.
Settings>developer option>force activities to be resizable
8. Save Your Mobile Data
One of the biggest problems of android is, using a large amount of data through background apps like social media apps, Games, Spy apps, etc. But thanks to google for fixing this problem by adding the data saving mode in android 7.0. With this, you can stop background apps from using data and there is another option with which you can allow some apps of your choice to access data from the background.
For activating data saver mode, go to your mobile settings then data usage. Enter into data usage and turn on the data saver mode. Well, in data saver mode you will find unrestricted data access. There you can choose your app in which you want to access data in the background.
Settings>data usage>data saver
9. Animation Scale
It is also a beneficial option for you given by android. If you think your phone is not catching your speed then this option is definitely for you. In this option, you can change your phone’s animation changing speed. It will also save your time a little. But most importantly it will make you faster.
Well, to change animation changing speed, again you have to go to developer option (those who don’t know about developer option check no.5). So now, go to phone settings and then developer options menu. There you will find 3 steps of changing animation scale called window animation scale, transition animation scale, and animator duration scale. Adjust them according to your taste.
Phone settings>developer option>animation scale (there is a tree of them)
10. Screen Pinning
Screen pinning is a very handy feature in android. It happens very often when you give someone to use any specific app on your phone, but after the work is done he/she starts to mess with your phone which is pretty embarrassing. However, don’t you worry screen pinning is the solution? If you use this feature your friend or anyone whom you are going to give your phone will be able to use only one app which you will decide to give him to use.
So, to enable screen pinning first go to the settings then enter the security option. There you will see the screen pinning option. Enable the screen pinning option and for extra security enable “Ask for unlock pattern option before unpinning” which is just down there (if you have a pattern lock in your phone). Now activate any app. Then go to the recent menu there you will find a pin icon on the right downside of that app. If you press the pin icon, there will come a confirmation text, accept that by pressing “got it”; after that your app will be pinned. If come back to a normal position, you have to long-press in your phone back button.
Settings>security>screen-pinning
11. “Clear All”, Button for Apps
Earlier in Android versions for closing all apps, you had to tap the overview button to bring up all of your open apps and swipe through one by one. The new Android versions starting from Android 7 Nougat offers a cool “Clear All” button to close all apps at once.
All you need to do for closing all apps at once is to “Press the overview button and then press the clear all button from the notification panel.
Press overview button>Drag notification down> press “clear all”
Google has always upgraded its Android versions with new and cooler features. After Android 7 Nougat it follows Android 8.0 Oreo that offers new features like 2X faster-booting speed than before, teleporting new apps directly from the browser, and some the hidden features of Android 7 Nougat like minimizing background apps, split-screen, etc.
Now, these are the 11 hidden features of android. Hope these will help in your day to day life. I do strongly believe these features will make your life faster and more pleasurable.
