Here are the best hidden Android features you should try

Your Android phone has hundreds of features you ignore every day. That’s completely normal—we’re all busy, and many of them won’t make your life any better. But there are some really useful tricks your device can do that might not be on your radar. Often, they’re buried deep in settings or simply not widely known. Here are a few of our favorite hidden Android features that could make your life a little easier.

Editor’s Note: This guide was created using a OnePlus 10 Pro, so the exact steps to access these features may vary depending on your device and software version.

You don’t need a fancy $1,900 foldable phone to use Android’s split screen. If you want to have YouTube open on one side of the screen while responding to a WhatsApp message on the other, opening two app windows side by side is really easy. Here are the steps:

1. Open your Rrecent applications list. These are the three horizontal lines to the left of the Home button on my device.
2. Click three dot menu above the first app you want to use in split screen.
3. Hit Split screen.
4. Now select another app you want to open.
5. Both apps will be open on the screen, taking up each half of its surface.

You can adjust the position of the slider between apps to give one more space on the screen, or move one away completely to exit split screen mode.

Instead of tapping an app on your home screen to open it, try long-pressing (touching and holding for a second) the icon. Some apps will just show you a standard menu, but others will offer shortcuts directly to specific sections or features of the app. For example, you can long-press the Google Photos icon to find a shortcut to screenshots, or long-press the Instagram app to get a shortcut to creating a new post.

An extension of this cool feature is the ability to drag shortcuts from the menu to the home screen. This way, you’ll have even more direct access to that part of the app next time.

Do you still give your Wi-Fi password to guests? Or do you send them to look at the bottom of your router while they type in a combination of numbers? If so, this is one of the hidden Android features you need the most. It lets you connect someone else to your Wi-Fi network by simply scanning a QR code on your phone. Here’s how

1. IN Settings menu, select Wifi Settings.
2. Click on your current Wi-Fi connection.
3. Hit Participation.
4. You will be asked to unlock the screen with a pattern or fingerprint.
5. This will generate QR code. It also displays your password and there is also a Quick Share option.
6. On the guest device, the list of Wi-Fi networks should have an option at the top to launch a QR scanner. Use it to scan the QR code on your phone.

Android’s read-aloud feature isn’t just for the visually impaired. You might want to summarize an email or listen to a digital article when your eyes are busy, like while driving or cooking.

To use this feature, highlight the text you want to hear and then press three dots icon in the context menu. Select Read aloudand the player will appear with a voice reciting the text. You can press gear icon on the left side of the player to change the text size and reading speed.

Live captions have the opposite effect of Read Aloud, but are just as useful. Activating live captions results in a text window popping up where any speech or text played on your device is transcribed live. This is useful for the hearing impaired, but can also be used to follow a podcast in a quiet environment or to watch the spoken text of a language you’re trying to learn.

To activate this function, press one of the buttons volume buttons and then touch Live subtitles icon under the volume indicator. A subtitle box will then appear, and text will be presented as it occurs. You can tap the box to find settings such as language options.

Need a lock? When you activate Focus Mode, select apps that may distract you, such as social media and games, are temporarily disabled. Notifications from these apps are also paused, preventing any alerts or pings that could distract you.

To configure this feature, go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing > Focus mode. First, you need to check the box next to the apps you consider distracting enough to warrant including them. Then, you can: turn something on Instantly switch to focus mode or set up a schedule based on times of day and days of the week, for example limiting distractions during work hours.

Sometimes you’d rather have your phone display just one app, like a video player or web browser. This often happens when you’re handing it over to someone else and don’t want them to explore all the personal aspects of your device. Pinning apps is a simple solution. It keeps one app pinned to your screen, and you can’t go to other parts of your phone without going through the unlocking process.

To use it, you need to have app pinning enabled, and how to find it in settings depends on your device. On my phone, the process is as follows: Settings > Security & Privacy > More Security & Privacy > Pinning Apps. Remember that you can always search for pinning in the settings search bar. Enable both Pinning apps AND Lock screen when unpinned switches.

To pin an app, press Recent Applications button and touch three dot menu above the app you want to pin. Press Pin in the menu to pin the app, and instructions on how to unpin it will appear on the screen.

To unpin, touch and hold both buttons Back AND Recent ApplicationsThe app will be unpinned, but the screen will be locked, so you’ll need to use your password, pattern, fingerprint, or whatever access method you use to unlock it again.

If you don’t have access to enough hidden features and Android customizations for your device, unlocking developer mode is a bit of an Easter egg. It opens up a number of advanced settings that can be helpful to app developers and tech enthusiasts alike. These settings should be used with caution, as they can affect the phone’s performance or stability.

The easter egg part is how to unlock developer mode, which is a bit like a secret code in a video game. You need to find your phone’s build number in the settings menu, then tap it seven times. On my device, the process looks like this: Settings > About Device > Version, then I hit Version no. seven times. I enter the phone’s PIN and a message pops up saying that the mode is unlocked.

You have unlocked a new submenu that was not visible before and will be available in Settings > Additional settings > Programming options or the equivalent on your Android phone. It’s a huge list of internal settings that let you do things like enable USB debugging, force apps to stay in landscape or portrait mode, restrict background processes, unlock the bootloader, and more. Make sure you know what you’re doing if you want to change anything.

Flipping the switch next to Developer options at the top of the menu, to the “disabled” position, will exit developer mode and reopening the menu will require you to repeat the above procedure.

You’re likely to use power saving mode when your battery is low, so it makes sense to use data saving mode if you have a limited data plan. This is especially helpful if your plan is limited to a few GB per month. This feature can reduce your data usage in a few ways, but the main one is preventing apps from using mobile data in the background. You can make exceptions for certain apps that may be important to you to have regular updates, such as email.

To use the tool, you need to find the mobile data settings. The process will look something like this: Settings > Mobile network > Data usage and then hit Saving data. There is a switch to activate the mode and a separate section where you can make a selection. Unlimited applications which will not be subject to these measures.

The quick settings you see when you swipe down on your phone’s home screen are quick in two ways. One is obvious — it’s a way to activate settings like Bluetooth or a hotspot with a single tap. What you might not know is that you can long-press one of the quick settings to get to its associated settings submenu.

In the example above, tapping the mobile data quick setting turns mobile data on and off, while holding it opens the mobile network menu, saving you a few taps.

These are just a few of our favorite hidden Android features, and Android 15 promises to unlock even more surprises. We’ll be sure to add some of these as we update this article in the future. In the meantime, let us know what you think of our picks below.