Jack Wallen / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
Android is chock-full of features that appeal to a wide variety of users. Some of those features have been met with wide acceptance, while others tend to be relegated to a smaller cross-section of users.
Some features are there, waiting for you to make use of them, and yet they go either ignored or underused.
One such example is Quick Settings. This feature has been available on Android for quite some time, and exists as a collection of tiles at the top of the Notification Shade that give you quick access to various features and settings found in the Android OS.
Most users either ignore Quick Settings or just stick with the default, not realizing they can customize the tiles to be exactly what they need.
Also: 6 hidden Android features every user should know - and how they make life easier
There are a surprisingly large number of Quick Settings tiles you can add to the Notification Shade, such as: mic access, camera access, color inversion, data saver, extra dim, one-handed mode, sound amplifier, VPN, recorder, focus mode, live caption, calculator, digital car key, and TV remote. In fact, when you install apps that support Quick Settings (which many do), you'll find Quick Settings Tiles for those apps as well (such as Bitwarden, ProtonVPN, DuckDuckGo VPN, and more).
How Quick Settings work
When you pull down the Notification Shade, you'll see four "pill" buttons at the top of the window. If you pull the Shade down a second time, you'll see eight such buttons. If you then swipe to the left, you'll see even more quick tiles. Keep swiping until you come to the end of however many such tiles have been added.
If done right, Quick Settings can make your Android life considerably more efficient. Jack Wallen/ZDNET
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