Top 10 Android tips

Quick Settings on Android allow for easy toggling and/or access to various functions of the system. Sadly, the features that any developer likes to use such as showing layout bounds, enabling profile GPU rendering, etc., are always hidden inside the Developer options menu within the Android Settings. It can become quite a hectic task to turn them on and off each time you require them. Luckily, Android Oreo makes things easier for developers by creating Developer specific quick settings. To enable them, follow the steps mentioned below:

• Open up the Android Settings, and head over to the “System” section. Once there, tap on “Developer options”.
• Now, scroll down and select “Quick settings developer tiles”. Now, you can enable or disable various developer related tiles such as “Show layout bounds, Profile GPU Rendering, Force RTL layout direction, and Window animation scale”.
• Once enabled, these notifications will now show up in Quick Settings. To add them, tap on the “Edit” button in the bottom corner of your Quick Tiles page. Now, simply drag the developer tiles to the Quick Settings page.

Android notifications are great for letting the user know what’s up, but there are times that it might come in the way of what you’re currently doing. Maybe you’re doing something important and you don’t want a certain notification bothering you. But, at the same time, you’re worried that if you swipe it, you’ll completely forget about it. That’s where the Snooze notifications feature of Android Oreo comes in. You can simply snooze your notifications for 15 minutes and continue doing your work. Once the timer runs out, you’ll be presented with the same notification again. Also, if 15 min doesn’t work for you, you can set the timer to 30 minutes, 1 hour, or don’t snooze. To snooze your notifications,

• Once a notification arrives, simply slide the notification to the side just a bit. A new menu will pop up with a clock icon and a settings icon. Tap on the “Clock icon”.
• A timer option will now appear. Simply select the time you wish to snooze your notification for, and then close the notification bar. Your notification should now be snoozed, and will automatically reappear once the timer runs out.

how Android users laughed when the iPhone X came out. “Such foolish Apple buyers,” they chortled, clutching tumblers of the port. “Only such sheeple would buy a phone with a hideous chip out of the top.” Then, at Mobile World Congress 2018, they saw how many forthcoming Android devices were emulating the iPhone X notch, and wept cold, bitter tears. Google adds support for notched screens in Android P, although to its credit, the company is limiting manufacturers to a highly reasonable two notches. Great. Fantastic. Now even more of these monstrosities with useless, power-burning pixels in the corners can be sold at ever-higher prices

Another great feature of Android Oreo is the inclusion of the Autofill API. You may already be familiar with Google Smart Lock, which basically saves your passwords when you log-in for the first time into a website. It then presents the same credentials to you the next time that you wish to log-in to the website. In Android Oreo, this feature has been extended to work within apps as well. Google will basically save your passwords and offer to easily input them directly the next time you try to log into an app. When you first log into an app, Google will offer you to save the account credentials. To do so, in the notification for “Save to Autofill with Google”, tap on “Save”. Now, the next time you try and log into your account, Google will automatically present you with a list of saved credentials. Simply tap on your preferred ID and Google will automatically fill out your details. Also, Google has allowed third-party apps like LastPass and Dashlane to work inside apps as well, thus simplifying the password management process. To do so, follow the steps below:

• Here, I’ll be demonstrating how to use LastPass Password Manager inside Twitter. The method remains the same for all password managers and all other applications. To begin with, download and install LastPass and head over to the “Accessibility” section. Once there, tap on “LastPass” under “Downloaded Services”, and enable it.
• Next up, open up LastPass and log in with your LastPass account, which has all your saved passwords. In case you don’t have any passwords saved yet, you can add them with the help of the Floating Action Button.
• Now, open up the app that you wish to log into. Once there, similar to the Google’s Autofill service, you will get a suggestion for saved credentials. Simply tap on it to log into your saved account. And that’s it. LastPass will now automatically enter the login credentials you stored in its app onto the login page. Finally, if you’d ever like to switch between password managers, you can do so by heading over to Settings -> System -> Languages & input -> Advanced -> Autofill service. Here, you can select amongst various Autofill services such as Google Autofill, LastPass, or any other auto-fill service that you may have installed. Alternatively, if you don’t like the feature, you can set it to “None” as well.

Android Oreo also comes with the ability to automatically turn on WiFi when you’re in home or office, where there is a high-quality network available. It comes as a nifty little feature that while conserving battery, also allows you to automatically switch to high-speed networks. To enable this feature, follow the steps below:

• Open up your Android Settings and head over to “Network & Internet”. Once there, tap on “Wi-Fi”, to open the WiFi related settings.
• A list of all your Wi-Fi networks will now appear. Scroll down and select “Wi-Fi preferences”. A new screen will now appear. Just enable to toggle next to “Turn on Wi-Fi automatically”, and you should be good to go. Your WiFi will now automatically turn back on when near high-quality saved networks, such as your home network.

Another new feature that comes with Android Oreo is notification dots. These dots show that there is something new in the app that the user should check out. While some users might find that a very useful feature to have (including me), some might just find it in the way. Either way, Android doesn’t take the right of choice away from the user, and hence allows the user to enable/disable the notification dots as per their liking. Additionally, you also have the choice to disable these notification dots globally or per app.