1. Enable Flash Notifications for Silent Alerts
Loud notifications can be annoying, but have you ever heard a phone vibrating on a glass table? It can be worse. For a quieter way to stay updated on texts or if you have trouble hearing notifications, Android now lets you set up flash notifications. This feature makes your phone’s screen or built-in flash blink to grab your attention.
To set it up, go to Settings > Accessibility and find Flash notifications. You’ll have two options: Camera flash makes the light on the back of your phone blink three times for notifications, or Screen flash shows a yellow overlay on your screen for new messages. You can enable either or both for more noticeable alerts.
Set your preferences and hit Preview to see how it works.
2. Run Apps Side-by-Side
This feature has been around since Android 7.0 Nougat, but it’s often overlooked. It allows you to view two apps side-by-side or one on top of the other, depending on how you hold your screen—perfect for multitasking, comparing photos, or managing social media.
To set it up, first, make sure both apps you want to use are open. Then, swipe up from the bottom of your screen to open the app carousel. Find the app you want and tap the circular icon at the top of its preview. From the menu that pops up, select Split top. Keep in mind that not all apps support this feature, so if you don’t see the “Split top” option, it’s not available for that app. If available, the app will position itself on one half of the screen. You can then choose a second app for the other half from the app carousel.
Adjust the size of each app by dragging the thick black line separating them. To exit Split Screen mode, simply drag the black line all the way up or down.
3. Lock Phone Borrowers Inside One App
If you’re lending your phone to someone and worry about them snooping through your personal stuff, app pinning is a lifesaver. It keeps one app open on the screen and locks the rest of your phone until you unlock it, allowing the borrower to use only the app you’ve pinned.
To set it up, go to Settings > Security & privacy > More security settings and select App pinning. Turn it on, then open the app you want to pin. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the app carousel, find the app, and tap the circular icon at the top of its preview. Choose Pin from the menu.
To unpin the app, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and hold it. You’ll need to enter your pattern, password, PIN, or use your biometrics to unlock your phone.
4. Activate One-Handed Mode
As phone screens keep getting bigger, using them with just one hand can be challenging. Fortunately, Google’s keyboard, which comes pre-installed on some Android phones, has a handy one-handed mode to make things easier.
To switch to one-handed mode, open the keyboard and press and hold the comma key. Then drag up to the right-hand icon to enable the smaller keyboard. You can move the keyboard from side to side using the arrow icon, adjust its position with the bottom icon, and go back to the full-size keyboard with the top icon. Other keyboards might have one-handed modes too, but they can be trickier to find. Check your phone model and search for “one-handed keyboard” for more details.
5. Customize Your Experience with Regional Preferences
Living in a foreign country can be a hassle when apps and services use local settings like metric units or different calendars. Changing these settings individually in each app can be time-consuming, especially if you switch phones.
That’s where Android 14’s Regional Preferences comes in. This feature lets you adjust these settings at the system level, so you don’t have to tweak each app separately. Go to Settings > System > Languages > Regional Preferences. You can choose your preferred temperature units, number formats, and even the first day of the week. These changes will apply across your device wherever possible.
6. Choose New Default Apps
One of the great things about Android is that it lets you choose your own default apps for different tasks, like browsing the web, texting, or viewing photos. A default app is the one that opens automatically when you perform a specific action on your phone, like clicking a link.
To set up your preferred default apps, go to Settings > Apps > Default apps. Here, you can choose which apps you want for various tasks. For example, if you’d rather use Facebook Messenger for chatting instead of your phone’s built-in SMS app, you can set Messenger as your default messaging app.
7. Cast Your Android Screen
You can cast your Android phone or tablet’s screen to your TV using a Chromecast, which lets you stream video from apps like Netflix or YouTube and also mirror your phone’s screen. To do this easily, use the Screen Cast shortcut in the Quick Settings menu. Swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers to open it. If you don’t see Screen Cast, swipe left for more options or tap the pencil icon to add it.
Alternatively, use the Google Home app. If you’ve set up your Chromecast before, you likely have this app installed. Open Google Home, select your Chromecast, and your phone’s display will appear on your TV. From there, tap Media and choose what you want to stream, like music, videos, podcasts, or radio.
8. Make Text and Images More Visible
If you’re having trouble seeing what’s on your screen—or if you want to fit more content on it, even if you have to squint a bit—you can adjust the size of text and other items. Most apps will respond to these changes, though not all.
To adjust the size, open Settings > Display > Display size and text. Drag the slider under Font size to make the text bigger or smaller. In Android 13, you also get a new slider for Display size. Use this to make icons and the Google search bar larger or smaller to fit your preferences.
9. Disable the Lock Screen at Home
To keep your phone secure, you should set up a PIN code or biometric scan to unlock it. But this can be a hassle when you’re trying to quickly access your apps. Google’s Smart Lock feature helps by letting you unlock your phone without entering a PIN or using biometrics when you’re at home.
To set it up, go to Settings > Security & privacy > More security settings and choose Smart Lock. Use Trusted Places to disable the lock screen when you’re at home. You can also set it to unlock when your phone is connected to a trusted Bluetooth device, like your car stereo, or when it senses that you’re carrying it.
10. Change Volume Settings Independently
Your device has different sounds for ringtones, notifications, alarms, phone calls, and media. If you’ve looked in the Settings menu under Sound & vibration, you might have noticed separate sliders to adjust each type of sound.
There’s an easier way to adjust your volume. Press the physical volume buttons on the side of your phone to change the volume of whatever is currently playing. If nothing is playing, it adjusts the ringtone volume. A small box will pop up showing which volume setting is changing. At the bottom of this box, you’ll see three dots—tap them to expand the box and see all your volume sliders at once.
11. Bring Back Lost Notifications
If you accidentally swipe away a notification you wanted to read, don’t worry—you can still check your recent notifications, though it’s not an easy option to find.
Here’s how: Press and hold an empty spot on your home screen until a menu pops up. Select Widgets, then find the Settings shortcut. Drag this icon to an empty space on your home screen and drop it there. A list will appear—choose Notification log from this list. Tap the icon to open your Android notification history and see all your recent alerts.
12. Get an Always-Handy Magnifying Glass
If you’re finding it hard to see text or images on your screen, Android 14 has a cool feature that lets you zoom in on specific parts of your screen.
To set it up, go to Settings > Accessibility and tap on Magnification. Turn on the Magnification shortcut switch. This will add a red magnifying glass icon to the right side of your screen.
When you need to zoom in on something, just tap the red icon. An orange frame will appear, showing a zoomed-in view of whatever’s underneath it, just like a real magnifying glass. Move this frame around to see different parts of the screen. If you need more zoom, use your thumb and index finger to pinch and expand the view. Tap the red icon again to turn off the magnification tool.
By exploring these hidden features, you can customize your Android experience and make your device work even better for you.