Developer Options

You may note be able to root your Snapdragon-powered Note 10, but thanks to the hidden Developer Options, you can still tweak low-level settings like custom codecs for better audio quality on Bluetooth headphones and faster animations to enhance your experience. Best of all, y ...more

As softModders, several of our guides dealing with modifications involve connecting our smartphones to a computer, allowing us quick and complete access to our device. Android has a rather secretive developers menu within their settings that allows for this connection to be m ...more

In case you didn't know, Android has an awesome hidden settings menu called "Developer options" that contains a lot of advanced and unique features. If you've ever come across this menu before, chances are you just dipped in for a minute so that you could enable USB debugging ...more

You don't need to have a fully modded and rooted Galaxy S9 to appreciate what developer options brings to the table. Besides the obvious USB debugging, which lets you use ADB, this hidden menu lets you tweak your phone's animations or change its DPI to better suit your needs — ...more

Compared to Apple's iOS, the Android operating system has earned a reputation for giving smartphone users more customization options up front — but there are even more Android features to customize hidden from plain view behind secret menus like the developer options. Despite ...more

If you ever want to go beyond the basics on your Android phone, unlocking the hidden "Developer options" menu is the first thing you should try out. With it unlocked, you can change the way parts of stock Android looks, enable ADB connectivity with your computer, add visual re ...more

Developers options is one of the first things tinkerers unlock on a new phone. However, even the less tech-savvy users will find some benefits to revealing this hidden menu, as it enables features such as GPS spoofing and faster animations. By default, this menu is hidden awa ...more

Just because Developer Options is hidden by default doesn't mean you shouldn't unlock it. While for rooters its benefit are obvious, even for the average user it opens the door for tools which enhance your experience. From animation speed to improving gaming graphics, Develope ...more

The first thing any Android power user does with their phone is unlocked the Developer options. The hidden menu has many low-level tweaks, such as forcing Dark mode on all apps, speeding up animations, or enabling hidden Quick Setting tiles. And most modifications require noth ...more

There's something missing on your brand new Samsung Galaxy S4, and if you're a softModder like me, you know exactly what it is already. If you don't know, keep reading, because you should—anyone who wants a better Android experience should. The Developer Options The hidden " ...more

Developer Options is your first step to becoming a power user. If the Pixel 4a feels a bit slow, Developer Options can fix that. You want to root your device for unprecedented controls and powerful apps? You need to enable OEM unlocking in this hidden menu. ADB, secret feature ...more

If you want to root, it's step one. If you're a tinkerer, it's vital. It's Android's hidden "Developer options" menu, and it's definitely worth taking 30 seconds to unlock. Open the Settings app on your Pixel 4 or 4 XL and scroll down to the bottom. Tap "About phone," then sc ...more

One of the best things about Android is the sheer amount of customization that can be achieved—and only if and when it's wanted. Much like our iOS counterparts, the out-of-box experience for the LG G3 is nearly flawless, but our advantage over iOS is that we can freely mod an ...more

Android's hidden Developer Options menu, sometimes called "Developer Mode," has a ton of cool settings inside of it. You can enable wireless ADB, spoof your geolocation, make the Pixel 5's screen always run at 90 Hz, or even force incompatible apps to work with dark mode. But ...more

Unlocking "Developer options" on an Android device is useful for many things. You can limit or stop transition animations for a snappier device, enable USB debugging to run fastboot commands, and more. But of course, the first step to making these tweaks is to unlock the hidde ...more

Your shiny new HTC One M8 is a pretty stellar device. From controlling your entertainment center to lock screen gestures and camera shortcuts to being pretty damn indestructible, this device has a lot going for it. But one feature that Google has requested OEMs hide are "deve ...more

Many Android utilities use Android Debug Bridge, or ADB for short, to send commands from a computer over to your phone or tablet. This enables such utilities to run terminal commands that, in some cases, wouldn't be possible on Android without root access. Before getting star ...more

When you start up your new Google Pixel 6 or 6 Pro, one of the first things you should do is unlock the hidden "Developer options" menu. Don't let the word "developer" scare you because there are little-known features in this secret Android 12 menu that every Android user can ...more

Even if you're new to Android phones, chances are you've heard of the power of Android's customization, and that applies to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series as well. Your brand new Galaxy Note 20 or Note 20 Ultra's operating system is capable of modification beyond what's ava ...more

There are number of android devices available in the market. Interface of every phone varies. Most of the people search for Developer Options to tweak the performance of the mobile phone. There is application available on google playstore to access the developer option, but it ...more

Last week, Apple released the first iOS 13.4 beta with fun and useful new features, such as new Memoji, an upgrade Mail toolbar, and the ability to control your NFC-compatible car via CarKey. To add to that, Apple just released iOS 13.4 developer beta 2, but does the update ha ...more

Apple's sixth iOS 13 developer beta was a welcome update for us beta testers. New options for toggling Dark Mode, a way to hide website previews when peeking links, plus UI changes made for a significant iOS 13 upgrade. We're hoping Apple continues this trend of fun and excite ...more

Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 13.6 today, Tuesday, June 9. This update comes one week after the release of its first developer and public betas, previously called iOS 13.5.5, as well as the general release of iOS 13.5.1. Apple's first 13.5.5 beta introduced ...more

Apple just released iOS 14 developer beta 7 for iPhone today, Thursday, Sept. 3. The new update (18A5369b) features new wallpaper options. Now, you can choose any color background for the rainbow wallpaper, and iOS will turn the background black when you enable dark mode. The ...more

For those of you who like to frequently change the icon shapes on your home screen, the process has changed in Android 10. The setting is buried and now applies to more than just home screen icons. In previous versions of Android, specifically Oreo and Pie, you could long-pre ...more

Ever tried using Android's split screen mode only to find the app you wanted to split doesn't support it? Even big-name apps like ESPN still don't support the feature despite the majority of Android devices having split screen. So instead of waiting for the developers, how abo ...more

Android's back gesture, formerly the back button, has long been a blessing and a curse. While it gives us system-wide backward navigation, the action can sometimes be unpredictable. But Google may have a solution with its new predictive back gesture, which gives you an animate ...more

Left-handers only make up about ten percent of the world, which means they typically have to use things made for the majority, i.e., right-handed people. If that wasn't annoying enough, there are studies that show that lefties actually get paid less. While I can't help any of ...more

Not every app is designed well. With nearly 3 million apps on the Play Store and countless more that you can sideload from other sources, there are bound to be a few stinkers. And many of them do a terrible job using RAM. Poor memory management by apps hurts everyone. Whether ...more

Back in the earlier days of Android, you were able to connect your phone to a computer, and it would mount automatically. This meant once the USB connection was made, your internal storage would pop up on the computer and you could go about your business. But recent versions o ...more

There are a number of options and hidden menus within Android that provide users more control over their device. With this control, you can better manage how your phone operates. We came up with a list of tips and shortcuts that, when used, will slowly put you on a path to bec ...more

It's gotten so much easier to screen record on your Galaxy thanks to One UI 2. You no longer need third-party apps — just tap a button. And while the built-in recorder doesn't have an indicator to show what's being touched on the screen, there's a simple way to enable it. Don ...more

On earlier Android versions, you were able to hold down on an app's icon in the recent apps menu (aka app switcher) and jump straight to the app's info page. From there, you could easily uninstall the app, force-stop its activity, or clear its cache and data. If this was some ...more

Many Samsung fans were excited when the Galaxy S9 kept the 3.5 mm headphone jack. While this is a rare delight in 2018, you also have the option for high quality audio playback over Bluetooth. When used with compatible headphones, the S9's new Bluetooth audio codecs can greatl ...more

All phones (yes, iPhones too) slow down over time. As your device gets bogged down by various apps and you begin to run out of storage, it's just an inevitability. That doesn't make it any less frustrating ... I mean, is there anything more annoying than a slow phone? My answe ...more

Before you can dive into customizing your OnePlus 6T, you must take the initial step of unlocking the bootloader to gain the ability to install TWRP, Magisk, custom ROMs, and other mods. A bootloader is a program that starts up on a device that states what operating system it ...more

In Android 10, Google is letting you adjust the accent colors to give your phone a bit of flair. When combined with the new system-wide dark mode, you are looking at eight different color combinations. That is seven more than we had in the previous version and seven additional ...more

The Galaxy S8 continues to be a treasure trove of hidden features that, with a little digging and experimenting, can be easily unlocked to further enhance your overall experience with the device. DPI scaling, or the ability to adjust the size of on-screen content, is among the ...more

Samsung just launched their Galaxy S9 flagship, with preorders shipping in the US already. The Galaxy S9 is an amazing smartphone, with a number of advanced features. Despite this, over time your S9 or S9+ may slow down a bit more than you would like. Thankfully, there is a lo ...more

To really customize your Samsung Galaxy S3, you'll need to be rooted, because most of the coolest mods and hacks require root access. If you haven't rooted yet, you're just barely touching the surface of what your GS3 can do for you. However, if you've never rooted before, it ...more

There's a new secret settings menu hiding in Android 9.0 Pie that offers Chrome-style "flags" to the overall operating system. Since it's currently the first Developer Preview and Public Beta versions, it's possible that this menu could disappear entirely when the stable versi ...more

It seems like all tech companies want to know where we are. Even Apple and Google have been caught abusing their location access on iOS and Android. Luckily, there are apps that can trick your phone into thinking it's somewhere it's not. As The New York Times recently detaile ...more

There are dozens of apps like Glympse, Family Locator, and Find My Kids that let parents see where their children's phones are, but they all have one fatal flaw: It's incredibly easy to spoof locations to make it look like the phone is somewhere else. Apps can't get direct ac ...more

The OnePlus 7 Pro is truly the best phone that the company has ever created to date — it's even one of the hottest phones around regardless of OEM. It offers an awesome display with minimal bezels, a smooth 90-hertz refresh rate, a pop-up selfie camera, and the best triple cam ...more

Apps can collect a lot of data. Even if they don't have permission to access your GPS or camera, they can still read other sensors and learn a lot more than you'd think. Your gyroscope could be used as a keylogger. The light sensor could read your visited links. But if you're ...more

Samsung's One UI 3.0 skin is built on top of Google's Android 11 open source code base, which means you get all of the standard features, plus some cool bonus stuff from Samsung. However, it's one of those standard AOSP features that you might find most useful if you send a lo ...more

There are phones nowadays with 12 gigs of RAM, but they'll cost you well over a grand. The majority of Android devices have much less memory — I'd wager most have less than 4 GB. And with the system taking up around 2 GB, that leaves user-installed apps little room to breathe. ...more

With the rise of OLED displays, Android users have been begging Google for a true system-wide dark mode for years. While a system-wide solution is still somewhat unlikely, Google has given in by providing a dark mode for certain apps, including Contacts. With most phones rock ...more

MLB.TV is a great service that lets you watch most Major League Baseball games in North America, as long as you're a subscriber, of course. While I personally love it, blackouts can ruin the ability to watch my favorite teams. Fortunately, MLB At Bat Android users have an easy ...more

Google brought its official dark mode to Android 10 not long ago, but it might take a while for all apps to support the new feature. That doesn't mean you have to wait around for each app developer to add dark mode — just follow this guide to learn how you can force all apps i ...more

Android 11 is here. Prior to Google dropping the naming scheme, this would have been a dessert with an R name (maybe Rice Krispies Treat or Red Velvet Cake) — but nope, just plain ol' Android 11. And after months of betas and a global pandemic, it finally debuted a little over ...more

Earlier this year, we got our first taste of Android Pie in the form of Developer Preview 1. As with all past Android previews, DP1 was limited to Google devices — but at Google I/O 2018, Google announced that Developer Preview 2 would be accessible to other devices, including ...more

Up until Android 5.0 Lollipop, the actual text of incoming notifications would scroll by in your status bar. These ticker style alerts didn't pop on screen or interfere with what you were currently working on, but you could still read the message. They were replaced by the new ...more

Year in and year out, OnePlus flagships top our list of the best phones for rooting. Why? Primarily because rooting does not void your warranty, and OnePlus goes out of their way to make the whole process as easy as possible. If you're new to rooting, it might seem like more ...more

Although the Essential PH-1 got off to a rocky start, thanks to steady updates, it has slowly become one of the best Android phones to come out in recent years. For $499, the Essential Phone is a cheaper Pixel, receiving updates almost as soon as the Pixel lineup does. What's ...more

Android 12L and Android 13 have a taskbar just for tablets that lets you quickly open recent, suggested, or pinned apps and drag and drop apps into split-screen mode. While the taskbar is meant just for tablets and foldable devices, you can unlock this new feature for your And ...more

There are three tiers to Android customization: things you can do by default, things you can do with ADB, and things you can do with root. While root is still pretty tricky to get, ADB mods just got a lot easier. Back in Android 9, Google added a feature that allowed you to w ...more

Android 7.1.1 stock images for the Nexus 6P were released last week on December 5, 2016. However, Verizon users seem to have been excluded from the update. Google's factory image page states "All carriers except Verizon" next to version number NMF26F. This doesn't seem fair, e ...more

The Pixel 4 comes with a new "Styles and wallpapers" app that lets you change icons, accent colors, and more. But if you're on a first-gen Pixel, a Pixel 2, or a Pixel 3, you don't get this feature. On the bright side, there's still a way to use it. Your circular home screen ...more

The Pixel 4 is one of the most talked-about phones of 2019, and it has many things going for it, especially in the world of rooting and modding. Just as with previous Pixel generations, unlocking the bootloader is the gateway to realizing your device's true potential. It can m ...more