Let’s dive deep into the Developer Options and see which option can make your experience better in any way. But first, let us see how to enable the Developer options on Android.
Enable Developer options on Android smartphones
Developers options can be activated on any Android smartphone using the same trick provided here. The method is also independent of the Android version or any OEM’s UI (MIUI or EMUI) that you are using on your smartphone. Now, you have the Developer options enabled on your Android smartphone and let’s move on to the different options and how to use them. Developer options should be used with the uttermost care as it can severely damage your smartphone.
10 things to use Developer options for
1. Animation control (faster UI)
Android system uses animations in the user interface whenever you open an app or do anything on your phone. These animations take some time and make the phone slower to some extent. You can reduce the time for these animations to play which gives an effect of a slightly faster user interface.
You can even disable the animations to make the smartphone even faster, but it makes the experience a bit odd. To keep the animation and speed, you can change the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale to .5x.
2. Show CPU usage
This option will show the current CPU usage on your device’s screen in the top right corner. This option is useful either if you are an app developer or just curious about the CPU usage. It shows which service is using how much capacity of the CPU.
3. Limit background processes (save RAM and battery)
This option is useful for users who are experiencing random freezes or slow processing while using their smartphone. It happens when you have insufficient RAM or processing power. You can limit the number of background process so there will be more space in the RAM and the current app won’t freeze or slow down.
You can limit the background process to At most four processes or set to No background Processes. But make sure that limiting the background processes may make your smartphone to malfunction and you might also won’t see any notifications from any apps. This option is the best to get the highest processing power from your smartphone while gaming and you can disable the option when done.
4. Don’t keep activities (better performance)
This is the best option for you if you want to save your smartphone battery. Enabling this options will kill the activity once you leave the app. All the processes related to that app will also get stopped at the same time. This option will save your smartphone’s battery as well as the RAM, and it won’t mess with any other activity which is currently running in the background.
5. Running Services
This option will show you all the running services on your smartphone; it opens a list of running services. The list also shows all the services related to the app which are running currently in the background. It will even give an option to stop a particular activity or report it to the Google’s forums.
6. Mock location (fake your location)
Have you downloaded any app to mock location and found it not working at all? Well, that’s because the app never got the permission to do that. Once you have the mock location app installed, you have to enter Developer options and select the app from the Select mock location app option.
7. Force activities to be Resizable
You will only find this option in the Android 7.1 Nougat Developer options. This option force any app which does not support split view mode to be resizable. After enabling this feature, more apps will support the split view mode. Of course, a few apps like the camera won’t work in split view mode even after enabling this option.
8. Simulate color space
This option is helpful to those who are colorblind or able to see fewer colors than others. There is an option for every type of deficiency including Monochromacy, Deuteranomaly, Protanomaly, and Tritanomaly. You can choose the appropriate option from the menu, and all the content on your screen will transform according to the option you chose. Even the games and videos on YouTube will follow the same color pattern you choose in the Developer options.
9. Change DPI of the screen
This option called Smallest width in the Developer options, and it can create an effect of a higher DPI on the same display. This option is for the Android tablets which are using low DPI display resulting in large user interface elements. To get this option working, you need to change the value manually in the option.
First, make note of the default value you see in the option then increase the value by 10 number per try. Do not increase the value a lot at the same time because it can mess up the whole user interface and can make your device unusable. Eventually, you will get the best dpi for your tablet’s screen.
10. Force allow apps on external
This app makes every app eligible to get installed on the external storage. This option will save your smartphone’s internal memory by installing apps directly on the microSD card or even in USB storage. If you are sideloading any apk with no microSD card inserted then, you have to disable this option because won’t let the apk to get installed.
Wrapping up
There are many more options in the Developer options which can be useful but those are highly experimental and can damage your device if not used with caution. Use Developer options carefully and if you have any queries about Developer options then you can ask us in the comments below.
