Top 10 Hidden Android Features
Top 10 Hidden Android Features
This is the age of smart phones. With smart phones getting cheaper each and every day, more and more people are jumping onto the android bandwagon. While most people are familiar with the different apps that make a Smartphone so productive, very few actually know the full extent of features that Android provides. Here are the Top 10 Hidden Android Features.
Top 10 Hidden Android Features
10. Lock Timeout
At number 10 in Hidden Android Features is Lock Timeout. Android offers many ways to keep our device secure be it patterns, pin number, password or fingerprint scanner. This locking of device is essential so as to keep others from using your device in case its lost but it can be cumbersome to unlock it every time. So Android allows users to increase or decrease the time needed for the device to lock down. This is really helpful when you have to use your device continuously for a long time.
9. Priority Notifications
At number 9 in Hidden Android Features is Priority Notifications. Android has a Priority Notifications system to let you control what you can see on your lock screen and also decide which apps can demand your edition. There are three modes all. Priority and none. In none, user is shown no notification, in priority user is only shown alarms and those apps which he seems important and in all, all the apps are shown to the user.
8. Recognizing tethered phone as hotspots
At number 8 is Recognizing tethered phones as hotspots. Tethering is a very useful feature for people who are on capped data plans as it allows user to use internet without paying extra. The problem is a device can’t readily distinguish between a wifi and mobile hotspots, so in case auto-downloads are turned on then the entire data of hotspot device can be over in a few minutes. Thus, we can see the recognized networks and toggle the hotspots so that their data is not abused.
7. Owner info to reclaim lost device
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk7vq17uFcM
At number 7 in Hidden Android Features is Owner info to reclaim lost device. Suppose you lose your phone and the person who picks it up wants to return it to you. For that there is a sweet feature which stores owner’s a detail like email address or phone number inside the Owner Info. Though certain smart phones with custom OEMs usually drop this feature.
6. Restrict Background data
At number 6 is Restricting Background Data. Android lets apps to continue working in the background without requiring the attention of the user; hence it may happen that a particular app is continuously using mobile data in the background thus draining all the data without even the user knowing. So in order to prevent this, Android Data Usage option gives detail info regarding which app is using how much data and restrict the apps that you don’t need.
5. Using Wifi for quick transfers
At number 5 in Hidden Android Features is Using Wifi for quick transfers. While you can transfer files using Bluetooth but the problem is that they have limited bandwidth and hence the transfer is slow. But Android allows a feature called Wifi Direct which is not usable in stock android but with the help of a third party app the Wifi of both devices can be used to transfer data. It allows files to be queued up for transfers and the transfer rate is also pretty fast at more than 30 mbps.
4. Controlling data usage
At number 4 in Hidden Android Features is Controlling data usage. Apart from just monitoring the mobile data being used, one can also control the data used by the device. Apart from just setting the monthly data cap, one can also regulate daily data usage by setting a cap for daily usage which would give warning once data consumption is close to the cap limit and turn off data usage once the cap is reached.
3. Smartlock
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQy4UvflC68
At number 3 in Hidden Android Features is Smartlock. Keeping one’s phone safe is of the utmost importance but it is really annoying to unlock the lock screen every time we take the phone out of our pockets, so Smartlock feature is especially useful. Smartlock allows a phone to be unlocked by means of some gestures swiping on the screen of a locked phone in order to open it.
2. System Animations
At number 2 in Hidden Android Features is System Animations. Android phones are fast and each successive android update only makes its faster and smoother. So here is a neat feature to make it even faster. To use this go to About – Software Information – More – Build Number. Now tapping on the build number a few times gives a dialog asking if you are the developer. Select yes and proceed. This doesn’t make any modifications to the device but just opens up the developer’s menu. One shouldn’t play around here because some of them can mess up the device pretty badly. Insider Developer options, there is an option Drawing and then inside Windows Animation Scale, Transition Scale and Animator Duration scale. All of these are set to 1.0x by default. Changing them to 0.5x makes the devices feel so much snappier.
1. Screen Recording
At number 1 in Hidden Android Features is Screen Recording. Earlier many users resorted to rooting the device to be able to do this. Screen Recording lets you capture what you are doing on your screen into a video and store it. Now with later updates this feature is available to users with a suitable app.
Android as we know is filled to the brim is exciting features, tools and options that it’s so hard to get around most of them. For those who want to be power users and want to know every possible option and menu inside their device, these are some of the hidden features that might have slipped your notice. These are the Top 10 Hidden Android Features.
