iPhone lovers can rant all they want about how their smartphones boast the smartest features of all mobile phones in the world. But even they know that those Apple products don’t come close to Google’s Android pocket-sized robots when it comes to versatility and customizability.
It is just unfortunate that most Android users don’t even know about some of the mind-blowing tricks their phones can perform. As such, many of them underutilize the built-in features of their Android.
But that’s going to change from now on; maybe not right away, but as soon as you reach the end of this post. Because right within this post are some amazing features and tricks you probably didn’t know your Android phone could pull.
Quick note: The tips compiled in this post have been verified for Android 7.0 Nougat systems. Although they may work on other related operating systems, the procedure for setting them up may vary slightly.
Screen Cast
You’ve probably used the Chromecast feature of Android to broadcast your Android phone display to a larger TV screen. But have you ever wondered if you could mirror your entire phone display on a larger screen?
What I mean is that in addition to watching only those mobile phone videos on your TV screen, you could mirror every part of your phone’s display, from messaging to the phonebook, settings to social media apps, and lots more.
To do this, you just need to activate screen mirroring on your phone. Don’t know where to do that? Drag down from the top of your phone screen with two fingers and go to the Quick Settings Pane, there you’ll find a Cast option amongst the menu.
Retrieve your lost notifications
We’ve all done it at some points – you accidentally swipe away your notification pane because you were busy, and now you have a nagging sense that someone messaged you but can’t remember who it was or which app it was on.
Don’t worry; there is a new feature on Android that lets you retrieve your recent notifications. Just tap and hold on an empty space of the home screen, and a screen-adjusting mode will show up. Choose widgets and find the Settings shortcut. Drag this icon to an empty space on one of your home screens and drop it in place, and a list will automatically pop up. Choose the notification log from the list and tap the icon to open up Android’s notification history.
Screen Split
Multitasking just got a lot easier with Android 7.0’s split-screen features. In the times past and even on some iPhones today, if you wanted to do something else other than what is currently displayed on your phone screen, you’d have to minimize that page and head over to a new page.
Android 7.0 Nougat solves this mystery by allowing users to run more than one app at a time, in a side-by-side or above and below format. This view comes in handy when you want to skim through your gallery, quickly check if the Instagram followers you bought on Stormlikes have been added to your Instagram profile, change a setting in your phone, or generally multitask.
Lend out your phone without worrying about a privacy breach
When a friend or family member asks to use your phone, you might be reluctant to give it out if you have content or info you wouldn’t like other people seeing.
Thanks to Android screen pinning features, Android users no longer need to live with this worry. Now, you can pin your phone borrowers inside one app, thereby restricting them from accessing any content without your permission.
The way it works is that you will pin one app to your phone screen, enabling the borrower to run just this app until you enter the lock screen code again.
Disabling your phone lock screen when you’re at home
To keep our phones safe, many of us set passwords, patterns, fingerprint locks, face IDs, etc. But this makes it more inconvenient to access our apps on the go, especially when we’re preoccupied with other things and we need to quickly do something on the phone.
Luckily for us, Google has removed the inconvenience through its Google Smart Lock feature. This feature automatically deactivates your phone lock screen, giving you instant access to your phone – but only when you’re home.
As well as disabling the screen lock feature when you’re home, you can also disable the screen when your phone’s Bluetooth is connected to your car stereo unit, or when it recognizes a trusted voice around, such as yours.
Tweak your status bar
From the time of old, a phone status bar is known to display icons such as signal strength, battery life, and notifications. But thanks to a new settings menu feature, called System UI Turner, built-in with Android 7.0 Nougat and other related OS, Android users can now tweak what is displayed on their phone’s status bar.
Don’t want your notifications flooding your status bar? Deactivate notifications from the bar!