Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives and our identity. Sometimes the phone you own can say as much about you as what you wear. Sometimes just a simple device is enough to receive calls and check email, other times we need to use it for GPS navigation, flashlight, controlling our smart home and many more.
Are you a fellow Android owner? I am sure you will enjoy the flexibility of the apps and the huge amount of features that comes with your device. Android phones are known for versatility and customization. Keep in mind that the following features were tested on Android 7.0 Nougat OS, and may work differently on different operating systems.
With that recognition, let’s take a look at some of the more advanced options you didn’t know you had.
split-screen apps
One of the useful features available on Nougat OS is the ability to split-screen your apps. This is great for social media use or news consumption. Imagine sending an SMS to a friend seeing your new Instagram post, it’s easy with Nougat.
To turn on this feature simply go to the overview menu (press the square at the bottom of the screen). This will open a list of recently used apps. Select the app you want to open from this list, then drag-and-drag the title bar of that app to the top left or top right of the display screen. Repeat this with the other app so that they both open at the same time. Simply double-tap the overview button to quickly swap two additional open apps.
resize display
If you’ve been leaning over to watch your screen, this might be just what you need. Small text can be difficult to read on the phone’s small screen, especially if your phone is sitting on a dock or otherwise out of arm’s reach. This little trick can save your eyes the stress of focusing on such a small thing.
Go to the Android Settings menu, then the “Display” tab. From here you are given options to increase the default font size as well as enlarge or shrink on-screen objects.
adjust the volume freely
Afraid you might miss the alarm? Want to increase media volume but don’t want your call volume to blow you away? There is no problem. With your Android device, it’s easy to adjust the volume of each source individually.
To do this simply press the Volume Up button, then tap on the Volume indicator which is displayed at the top of the screen. A volume slider slides down from the top of the screen when you do this. From here you can manually change the volume for alarm, ring, media or in-call volume, notifications, and system alerts.
change default apps
If you are familiar with Windows operating system for PC then you have surely used this feature. This is the ability to choose a default application for various tasks on the phone. Let’s say you want to open Chrome browser whenever you click on a link, you can easily change the default application to Chrome.
To change the default back to Settings, then go to “Apps”. From here, tap the cog in the top right to see a list of categories. When you tap on a category you will see a list of applications that can take the default, select your favourite.
one-handed mode
As our phones have been slowly increasing in size, it has become increasingly difficult to use them with one hand, but thankfully, Android has a useful feature to help you with this task. One-handed mode allows you to shrink the keyboard and move it anywhere on the screen. On Samsung or LG phones, you’ll need to select the default keyboard as the “Google” option. To do this, refer to the tip above.
To activate one-handed mode, open the keyboard as you normally would, then hold down the Backslash key. When you do this you’ll be able to move the keyboard around on the screen by clicking and dragging or using the arrows to select an anchor location. To enlarge the keyboard back to full size, tap the icon at the top of the screen.
Android Features That iPhone Users Are Envy
If you’re interested in learning a little more about the unique features available on your Android device, check out this list of the many app functions and utilities that only Android devices can use.