Android Tips & Tricks You Probably Didn't Know About

Android Tips & Tricks You Probably Didn't Know About 

1. Enable Developer Mode

Ok, this is one of the more widely known tricks, but it's important nonetheless, so we are going to include it.

Navigate to Settings > About phone and tap on your phone's build number seven times. You'll get an onscreen countdown, eventually followed by a message saying "Congratulations, you are now a developer".

2. Change the Animation Speed

For the most part, the latest Android phones already feel very snappy. However, some lower-end phones only ship with 4GB of RAM, and in extreme cases, just 2GB.

One solution is to change your phone's Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale from 1x to 0.5x. Granted, it won't actually make your phone faster, but it will make it feel faster.

Go to Settings > System > Developer options and scroll about two-thirds of the way down the list to find the necessary options (you'll need to have first enabled Developer Mode).

3. Clear App Defaults

It's annoying when a link opens in a certain app rather than in the browser. It could be a YouTube link, a tweet, or a Facebook page—you'll end up waiting around while your phone shuts down Chrome (or your browser of choice) and fires up something else.

It's easily fixed.

Go to Settings > Apps and notifications and find the app that keeps opening. Once there, tap on Advanced, scroll down to Open by default, press it, and then select Clear Defaults.

If that doesn't work, try doing the same with your browser app as well.

4. Quickly Change Your Wi-Fi Network

Oddly, how to quickly switch between Wi-Fi networks is not very obvious. Sure, you can go to Settings > Network and internet > Wi-Fi and change it there, but there has to be a faster way, right?

Well, there is!

Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to open the Quick settings menu, and instead of tapping on the Wi-Fi icon (which disables it), tap-and-hold on the icon. You'll immediately be given a list of all the networks in your vicinity.

5. Quickly Access the Quick Settings Menu

Speaking of the Quick settings menu, did you know you don't actually need to double swipe in order to access it?

Instead, a simultaneous two-finger swipe will have the same effect.

6. Cast Your Screen

Are you a Chromecast owner? If so, you can easily mirror your Android screen (and individual apps) by using the cast function.

Just open the Quick settings menu and hit Screen cast. Your device will find your Chromecast (assuming it's on the same local network), and you're good to go.