What are some cool but underrated Android Features on Android that most people don’t know about? those little things that make life easier but don’t get talked about much. I feel like there’s so much hidden stuff in Android that we miss out on.
Android has support for keyboards. Both USB and Bluetooth keyboards work well and can be used for longer typing.
And a mouse too!
You’re right. This came handy when my phone’s screen broke and the touch sensor didn’t work. With USB mouse and keyboard, I could make a backup.
(Bluetooth would have worked too, if the devices are already paired).
In developers options, turning the animation speeds to .5x
Don’t know if that’s really an underrated feature, but would like to mention it anyway. Everything feels much faster after that. Pretty much the first thing i do when i have a new phone.
Oddly, I set mine to 2x because I like the animation being more… Animated. If I wanted speed I would just turn animation off.
Thanks for reminding, i remember that one if the older android days. Just adjusted it again, its still a really nice mod and speedbump!
Not sure if this counts as “underrated” but Quick Share / Nearby Share. Its just Airdrop but for Android, not much to explain. It’s built in to all modern Android versions, and some older devices might also have it if they are new enough to have the “Google Play System Update” option on their phone as a separate update option from the main OS update.
Edit: Actually, its reportedly available for every android phone with Android Version 6.0 or newer.
This is not an Android feature. This is a Google feature and I believe it relies on a round-trip through their servers too.
Yeah it’s a shame Google dragged it’s feet so long and unlike all the crap they advertise but then release only. For the US for the next 6 years, they never went loud about this. So much the easiest way to share.
These might be Pixel only features, but the few that always get iPhone users envious of my phone are:
Battery sharing - Turning the phone into a wireless charger for other phones, including iPhones.
Now Playing - Display whatever music is playing on the lock screen, and keep a history. Great when you’re at a bar and don’t want to open up Shazam or want to go back and see all the music your friend was playing in the car.
Ad Guard - Block ads, even in apps.
If you have a USB C to C cable handy, that’s also going to work to charge other devices, loses less power to the transfer, is quicker, and also more convenient since you can keep using both phones. Of course you’ll often not have a cable, but if you do it’s probably gonna be the better option
The real advantage to the battery share feature (ime) is charging shit like my pixel buds while I also charge my phone, using 1 cable
Doesn’t work on my Pixel 9.charging it disables battery share.
You might need to check the settings for it, I believe you have to set the item on the… Fuck it I’ll go snag a screenshot of my settings app I use this daily
One of these 2 settings might be getting in your way:
You have like 30s to put the device on your phone or it won’t charge and you have to unplug/replug your phone
I dont seem to have that second option in my Pixel
Pixels have a tendency to have different features depending on the phone you use. Even when it’s the exact same model and firmware you can find some missing features.
If you use the 3 button navigation, there are options for long press of buttons. “Kill foreground app” as back button long-press action is just indispensable when something goes wrong.
Used to use the hell outta that.
The ability to change the launcher (i.e., practically the whole user interface) at will simply by installing an alternative one from your app store of choice, or an APK.
On the calendar, I can set people’s birthdays with a yearly reminder so they think I’m super thoughtful for remembering their birthdays. But the phone notified me.
Happens automatically if you put the birthday on the contact, too
*if you use Google’s Contacts and Calendar services
(I am very much separated from G and my contacts and calendar are hosted on my nas via radicale, so this feature doesn’t exist - but I just made a calendar for birthdays myself, and add when needed)
Birday is a nice simple app that I like, it shows all upcoming birthdays and how many days until they happen. Just pulls the data from your calendar so no setup needed.
An application like tasker makes you realise the weird and amazing stuff you can do.
What do you use it for?
I’ve had it for a while,
but ended up uninstalling it,
since I could not think of a good use case.
Some small but useful OneUI features for you Samsung users’
- Dual Bluetooth audio: Samsung devices can stream audio to 2 Bluetooth devices at the same time which is very cool when you have friends who want to listen in but don’t want to share earbuds. I use this very often.
- One time passwords for wifi hotspot: Samsung devices can create a otp for hotspot that only works once and stops working the next time you turn on hotspot. Very useful feature that I use all the time too.
- Bypass charging: If you game with your phone, search for game booster setting in advanced setting and turn on Pause USB PD charging to use bypass charging and save on battery health
- Turn off UltraHDR: On OneUI 7, turn off SuperHDR in advanced setting to stop the screen from brightening whenever you scroll through an UltraHDR video (fuck you for this useless flashbang feature Google and fuck you Apple for defaulting to HDR recording)
NewPipe, ReVanced patches, screen rotate with the popup, KineStop, and if you’re adventurous: dual boot different ROMs using A/B.
Try other app stores like fdroid
That is not an Android feature…
It really is an exclusive Android feature.
But if you can load open source apps without using the Apple app store, I’d love to learn how.
F-Droid is available on iOS?
Not an app “store” per se, but Obtainium
Pin a app to the screen, so if you need to let someone use their phone they can’t get super nosy.
owner account can have a work profile, separate apps, have two versions of the same app, or just put some apps behind another fingerprint/password (can be different then the main phone unlocks)
Multiple user accounts (totally different accounts, totally different apps) : great if you want to let a kid play games, or let someone search the internet, or if you want to be really clean and keep work apps totally different. Mostly useful on tablets to let multiple people share the tablet.
The ability to run open source apps from fdroid, newpipe is an amazing game changer for anyone who watches youtube. (no ads)
Other ROMs like Lineage.
