Android is packed with a number of developer options that allow you to go beyond the usual user-facing functionality to gain even greater control over your day-to-day experience – here are some of our tips for get the most out of your phone.
First of all, developer options can sometimes be called “developer mode” on some Android devices. These additional controls are obviously not available out of the box and are designed to allow developers (and by extension users) to configure system behaviors to help profile and debug application and system performance.
Before you start, you will need to go to Settings > System > About phone > Tap on “Build number” seven times > Enter PIN or pattern. To access the broader Developer Options or Developer Mode, you’ll need to head to Settings > System > Developer Options. From there, we can start making adjustments.
Video – 10 Advanced Developer Options Settings to Instantly Enable
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Default USB Setup
When you plug your Android phone into a PC or laptop, a predefined process runs automatically. This may vary from phone to phone, but thanks to Android Developer Options, you can tweak it to suit your personal preferences.
You can choose between file transfer mode, USB tethering, act as a digital interface for audio with MIDI, or image transfer with PTP mode. You can also set it so that your Android phone does not transfer any data and charges only if supported.
This is a real time saver if you only plug your phone into a computer to delete files, and you can enable it by heading to Settings > System > Developer Options > Default USB Configuration. From there, just configure the option you prefer.
Force split screen mode
Android’s default split-screen mode is great for letting you do real multi-tasking on your phone. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with all apps for one reason or another. Thanks to a toggle in the Developer Options section in Android 12 and Android 13, you can force split-screen mode even for unsupported apps on your Android phone (or tablet).
You may run into issues with unsupported apps, but this is especially helpful since most apps will scale to your screen size anyway. To enable it, go to Settings > System > Developer options > Force activities to be resizable.
Force maximum refresh rate
Even if your phone has a high screen refresh rate, it may not always run at the maximum rate. You may notice frame drops or times when the refresh rate drops at lower speeds. Often this is limited by the apps on your device, but the Android system will do this to save battery or even improve performance.
That said, you could have a 90, 120 Hz, or even higher refresh rate display. Through the Developer Options section of Android, you can force your devices to use the maximum refresh rate in all areas of the system.
To enable it, go to Settings > System > Developer Options > Force Maximum Refresh Rate > Toggle “Enabled”.
Block all sensor tiles
Your smartphone knows a lot about you. Some might say too much. If you’re worried about your privacy at times, there’s a quick and neat toggle to turn off all your sensors on the device, including GPS, microphone, camera, accelerometer, gyroscope, the proximity sensor and even the magnetometer will be inaccessible to any application. . on your phone while this option is enabled.
There could be battery benefits here too. You will lose some functionality if you leave the block in place all the time. However, it is still useful to have access to it. To add it to your device’s Quick Settings panel, go to Settings > System > Developer Options > Quick Settings Developer Tiles > Sensors Disabled.
This will be added to the first position in your quick settings panel or notification shade, but can be moved anywhere you like. Mobile data and Wi-Fi are not affected by this tile.
Select the mock location app
There are tons of apps that need your location to work. Some might argue too much. There are tons of apps that allow you to fake your current location, which can be useful for games that require a location for certain unlocks or game features. A great example is Pokemon Go or even streaming apps when you want to access geo-locked content.
You can use location spoofing apps to default to a specified region and with developer options, that means you can place your Android anywhere on the planet without any hassle. To enable it, go to Settings > System > Developer options > Select mock location app > Now select your preferred app.
Speed up device animations
Android receives many unsatisfied reviews for the quality and consistency of animations and perceived smoothness. In recent years, things have improved considerably. With the enhanced developer options mode, you can change your phone’s animations if they’re too slow or not slow enough for your liking.
If you want to change the animation speed, go to Settings > System > Developer Options. From there, there are three options you can toggle to improve speed. “Window animation scale”, “Transition animation scale” and “Animation duration scale” can be changed according to your personal preference. It should be noted that .5x speed means faster, so smaller numbers mean even faster animations.
Wi-Fi scan limitation
Battery life is one of the biggest complaints of any smartphone and taking steps to potentially increase it is always worthwhile – as long as functionality isn’t impaired. One such feature that might be worth turning off is “Wi-Fi scanning.” However, you can still keep this option enabled for fast Wi-Fi switching but limit the frequency of the scanning process.
Wi-Fi scan throttling limits background apps to scan for Wi-Fi to once every 30 minutes. Without being activated, it can go up to once every 15 seconds. In our opinion, this is a good compromise if you don’t want to completely disable Wi-Fi scanning.
To enable, head to Settings > System > Developer Options > Wi-Fi Scan Limitation.
force dark mode
A dedicated dark theme or dark mode has been one of the best additions to Android in recent years. It’s still not perfect, thanks to a toggle found in Developer Options, you can force a dark theme even for unsupported Android apps and certain sections of the system.
As you might expect, this can be buggy. Some parts of the user interface may become obscured or difficult to decipher as a result of using this option. We would say use this feature with caution as it can make some apps difficult to use properly.
If you want to enable dark theme everywhere, go to Settings > System > Developer options > Override force-dark.
Always enable/disable mobile data
Even when your phone is constantly connected to Wi-Fi, mobile data will be active for fast switching between networks. This is fine if you regularly move between networks, but for most people this can affect battery longevity.
To disable or enable this feature, go to Settings > System > Developer Options > Mobile Data Always On > Enable/Disable. With this feature disabled, it’s worth noting that when turning off or disconnecting Wi-Fi, it will take a few seconds before mobile data is available, but we think that’s a worthwhile trade-off.
Monitor and manage running services
In developer options, you can manage and monitor all running processes running on your Android phone including cached apps. If your phone is acting strangely or you just want to get an idea of what’s eating up the device’s memory, then this dashboard is a useful place to visit to get a better idea of what’s going on.
You can also stop any processes or applications in this panorama if you wish. Head to Settings > System > Developer Options > Running Services to get an idea of the current state of your Android phone.
We want to know exactly which Developer Options you should enable on your Android phone right away. Is there something you literally can’t live without? Let us know in the comments section below.
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