Secret menu «For developers». Getting the most out of Android

Most Android users do not realize that not all smartphone functions are available to them by default. Hidden in the gloomy bowels of the secret menu «For developers», which allows you to go beyond the basic features. Don’t let the name of this menu intimidate you. Some of the options hidden in it are really not needed by a simple user. But there are some that can be useful to everyone.

Enabling and disabling the «For Developers» menu

By default, the “For Developers” menu itself is not available in the settings. To activate it, go to settings and in the section “About phone (About tablet)”. Look for «Build Number». Depending on the version of Android, “Build Number” may be in the “Software Details” submenu.

Click on «Build Number» seven times in a row. This will give you developer status, and the corresponding “For Developers” menu will appear in the general settings.

Now let’s look at the options that you may be interested in in this menu.

Screen does not turn off when charging

If you check the item “Do not turn off the screen”, then the smartphone will no longer automatically lock when it is on recharging. Without being connected to the charger, it will continue to dim the display according to the set screen settings. The option can be convenient if, for example, you use a smartphone as an assistant device when working at a computer. To manually lock your smartphone, as usual, short press the power button.

In the English version, the “Keep the screen on” option is called “Stay awake”.

Background process limit

The “Background Process Limit” option allows you to set a hard limit on the number of applications running in the background. The default is “Standard Limit”, but you can disable background applications completely, or set a limit of 1-4 processes. The option is extremely useful for weak smartphones, which are required to perform some resource-intensive task.

In the English version, the option is called “Background Process Limit”.

Enable anti-aliasing

MSAA — Multisample anti-aliasing. Enabling this setting enables 4-level anti-aliasing in OpenGL ES 2.0 games and applications. Simply put, the picture should become smoother and more beautiful. True, this will require more computing power from the smartphone. The battery in games will also start to drain faster.

In the English version, the option is called “Force 4x MSAA”.

System animation speed

In the “Drawing” section, there is an “Animation speed” parameter, which is set to “1x” by default. If you turn off the animation here or set the speed higher, then, accordingly, the smartphone menu will scroll a little faster. Please note that this does not increase the actual performance of the smartphone, but only creates the illusion that it is running fast.

In the English version, the option is simply called “Animation”.

“Aggressive Wi-Fi for Cellular”

The “Aggressive Wi-Fi for Cellular” setting has been available in Android since version 5.0. This is a function that automatically switches the smartphone to mobile data when the Wi-Fi connection is too weak.

It is useful for two reasons:

• Battery saving. In normal mode, if your phone cannot connect to Wi-Fi for a long time, it simply drains the battery, although it could switch to mobile traffic.
• When leaving home, you do not need to switch from Wi-Fi to a mobile connection, the smartphone does everything by itself.

On the other hand, the option should be used carefully, because you may not notice how the smartphone will spend all your mobile data.

In the English version, the option is called “Aggressive Wi-Fi to mobile handover”.

Process statistics

The “Process Statistics” parameter is similar in its operation to the Windows Task Manager. By clicking on it, you will see all the running processes and how much RAM they consume. By clicking on a specific process, you can end it, unless, of course, it is a system one.

In the English version, this option is called “Running services”.

Fictitious Locations

The option «Phantom Locations» is very useful for maintaining privacy or for bypassing some regional restrictions.

For example, if YouTube says that a certain video is not available to watch in your region, it can be fooled. To do this, you need to install from Google Play one of the applications required to change the location. There are many such applications, but the most popular is Fake GPS location.

But just installing a «trick» is not enough. In order for it to work, you need to check the box “Fictitious Locations” in the “For Developers” settings. In the English version, this option is called “Allow mock locations”.