More than 80% of the smartphones in the world are Android, but do you know all the possibilities that your phone offers you? The Google operating system has evolved a lot since its inception to be a very powerful tool, in addition to having more than one hidden trick. Here we are going to make a compilation of 20 Secret Tricks to make your Smartphone better

1. Easter egg

All versions of Android have a surprise inside, it is the so-called “easter egg” or easter egg. In Lollipop and Marshmallow we have a flappy bird style game, in Nogat you can collect cats and in Oreo you can play with an octopus circling the fish tank. In Pie, the latest version of Android, we will find a drawing application that is reminiscent of the mythical Paint and in which you can draw abstract drawings.

• All Android Easter Eggs: From Gingerbread to Android P

To access the easter egg of our terminal we must go to Settings> About the phone and press several times in a row until a new screen appears with your desktop background and the logo of the Android version on top. Press several times on the logo and then a long press until the easter egg is discovered.

Easter Egg in Chrome

Even Chrome has its own Easter egg for those times when you don’t have a connection, you can safely kill time without having to snack between meals or smoke a cigarette. When the pixelated dinosaur appears, touch the screen and the obstacle course will begin.

2. Disable pre-installed applications

Most devices have pre-installed applications that we cannot uninstall in any way, and they continually bother us that they want to update. We cannot remove them but we can disable them and eliminate their notifications. They will continue to occupy space in memory but they will no longer hog resources with each update that you never use in the end.

To disable an application, go to Settings> Applications> All  and choose the system application you want to lose sight of. First uncheck the option to ‘Show notifications’ so that it does not notify us again about its updates. Then click on ‘Disable’ and accept. 

If you ever regret it and want to activate it again, you just have to go back, look for the application in the ‘Disabled’ section and click on ‘Enable’, the process is totally reversible.

You can also disable all the pre-installed applications you want in one fell swoop thanks to the Debloater v3.90 computer software  .

3. Open Shortcuts without going through notifications

In Nougat we have 5 very fast accesses but for the rest the notifications appear first. For any Android version (prior to Nougat, of course) there is a very simple trick, that most of us do not know, to go directly to the Quick Accesses without going through the notifications.

The secret is to use two fingers to pull the status bar and directly remove the shortcuts. As simple as that.

4. Activate developer options

The developer options give us advanced use of the device and give us the possibility to control parts of the system such as the time it takes to launch a new window, activate USB debugging, show touches on the screen and some more interesting options.

To activate these options, go to  Settings> About phone and look for where it says ‘Build number’. Click on it 10 times in a row and now in the settings menu you will see the tab with the new options. Here is a good way to take advantage of the developer options .

5. Access the hidden menu

Android has a back door through which you will be able to know a lot of interesting information about your terminal, such as all the usage statistics by application, the battery status (temperature, use, health, etc.) and more information about the connections and terminal.

To access this menu you must dial the secret code * # * # 4636 # * # * from the calling application and you will automatically enter it. Here are some more secret codes in case this one has aroused your curiosity.

6. Compress files to .zip format

From Android Oreo we can create compressed files in ZIP form. It is a very useful function when we want to send several files in an email or to store documents that take up less space. This function can be carried out from the file explorer or from the downloads. In addition, from oreo we can navigate within the .zip files without having to decompress them.

7. Expanded numeric keypad

You can configure the keyboard to also display numbers as keys over letters instead of a separate keyboard accessed from the typical numbers and symbols key. To do this we must add a custom input style.

Go to Settings> Language and text input> Google keyboard> Appearance and design> Custom input styles , once here we will click on the ‘+’ symbol to add a new one. We choose our language, in the ‘Type’ options we will choose ‘PC’ and click on ‘Add’.

Now in Google keyboard settings we will select ‘Languages’ and we will mark the custom option that we just created. Now you will have the same keyboard as on a computer and if you click on the capital letter, surprise! capital letters appear.

8. Voice recognition without internet

You can use the voice recognition of the Google application even if you are offline, you will not be able to search for things on the internet but you can interact with the smartphone. To do this, we must download the voice recognition package for our language. If you have the Google Now launcher, slide your finger to the right from the main screen to open Google Now and slide to the right again to remove the menu and choose ‘Settings’. If you don’t have the Google Now launcher, open the application called ‘Google’ (blue symbol), swipe right to get the menu and choose Settings.

Once in Google settings select Search> Voice> Offline speech recognition> All , here choose your language, we will accept the download of the package and when it is finished it will be available. In the update tab you can choose to update automatically when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network.

9. Zoom on any screen

Special for those with vision problems. You can zoom on any screen of our Android not only in the browser. We just have to activate the option in Settings> Accessibility> Magnifying glass gestures . Now from any screen we can zoom by just pressing three times on the screen and control it with two fingers as usual.

10. Disable notifications from an application

There are times when the notifications of a game or an application that you do not use a lot can get a bit twitchy, especially if they are frequent. Notifications from any application can be disabled very easily to preserve our peace of mind.

Go to Settings> Applications and select the specific app. Uncheck the Show notifications tab and accept the order in the pop-up window that appears below.

From Android Nougat we can also quickly manage the notifications of an application directly from its own notification. You just need to gently pull to the side of the notification a little bit until a gear appears and release. Touch the gear and you can choose the options in a small menu.

11. Clear the cache without entering the recovery

Even Lollipop, if you wanted to erase all the device’s cache, you had to enter the recovery mode and choose the wipe cahe partition, but from Marshmallow we have an option directly in the settings menu without having to restart or press key combinations. Go to Settings> Internal storage> Cached data , confirm with OK .

12. Fake location

We can trick positioning services to post on Facebook or Twitter from the Bahamas. For this we must do several things. First in Settings> Development options activate the ‘Mock locations’. Now we need an app like Fake Location to simulate another location. Open the application and place the pin where you would like to be and share.

Fake GPS Location Spoofer Free

13. Three applications at once with Picture-in-Picture

From Oreo we can use the option of Picture-in-Picture , or Picture in Picture in Spanish, and the split screen to use three applications at the same time. Choose an application to use with picture in picture, then open multitasking to choose two more applications to be behind. To control the applications that can be used over the others with PiP, go to  Settings> Applications and notifications> Special application access> Picture in picture .

14. Control the preview of notifications

In Lollipop and Marshmallow applications can display notifications on the lock screen. Many times the device is visible to everyone and some private or sensitive information can be shown to outsiders. To avoid this it is best to disable the sensitive notifications of the application in Lollipop or hide the preview of the application in Marshmallow.

To do this, go to the application settings in Settings> Applications , choose the app here and once inside access the notifications. Uncheck the last option and your privacy will be safe.

15. Take photos while recording a video

It seems silly but having a snapshot of a specific moment to enjoy it without having to watch 15 minutes of video again. It is very simple, you just have to touch the screen while you are recording a video and the photo will be saved in the gallery right behind the video.

16. Have two WhatsApp (or Facebook, or Twitter) accounts on the same device

User accounts can be created from Lollipop (although not all manufacturers include it in their software). It is something very practical to separate your private life from your professional life, if your children, family or friends use your device. The good thing is that it opens up the possibility of having several identities, such as with WhatsApp or Facebook. You can have different accounts for the same service.

To configure a new user you can go to Settings> Users> Add user . Once created, you can quickly access the profile from the shortcuts by tapping on the user icon and choosing the profile you prefer. In each of the profiles, you will have totally separate personal files, such as photos, and accounts for services such as Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter.

17. Forced restart

If your smartphone is going crazy for some reason and is not responding to anything you can always give it a hard restart. Just long press the power button for more than 10 seconds for the device to restart.

18. Enter safe mode

Sometimes there are applications that can annoy the entire system of our smartphone. To debug Android from third-party software, it is best to restart your device in safe mode. In this way, all the applications that we have installed from third parties will be disabled and only the native applications of the system will work. If we have several users we can also use them without problems. Uninstall the problematic app and fix the problem

To restart the device in safe mode, press the shutdown button until the shutdown option appears. Now on the screen, press for a long time on ‘Shut down’ until the warning to restart in safe mode appears and accept the operation.

19. Invert screen colors and color correction

Within the Settings> Accessibility menu we find two very curious options to control screen colors. One is ‘Invert Colors’, this option flips the entire spectrum of colors that the screen represents. That is, we will see everything as the negative of an analog photograph.

The other option is ‘Color correction’. This is an option to help people with dichromatic color blindness  (difficulty distinguishing two colors in particular). This type of color blindness has three variants: protanopia (red-green), deuteranopia (red-green), and tritanopia (blue-yellow). When we activate this option, the screen will show the spectrum of colors in which the colors that can confuse each type of color blindness are avoided.

20. Use a mouse if you have a broken screen

How many of you have the screen broken? And sometimes it doesn’t even react to touch so we can’t use the terminal even though the screen does light up. The solution to control your smartphone is an OTG cable and a computer mouse.

You can use your Android with a computer mouse as if it were your finger, you only need the micro USB to USB port adapter cable (like the ones on your computer). As soon as you plug the mouse into the device, a mouse pointer will appear on the screen that you can easily control.