Google’s Android platform has been around for about ten years now. And, with every iteration, you receive and enhanced user experience and added features.

Google and Android really do listen to their audience and deliver features that fit their expectations. Over the years, Android has added a great number of features into their Operating System (OS) and into their phones; some of which, users have little knowledge of its existence or how to advantage and use these incredible features. Here are 5 hidden features on your android phone you need to know of and use right now.

Choose your Default applications

This little trick has been around for a really long time. Android phones have the ability to change their default applications to any other application on the Google play store as long as it serves the same purpose. Here’s an example; you may not like the application design of your default music application on your smartphone, you browse through the enormity of choices on the Google play store and decide on a music player. You now can set that application as your default and use it as your default music application. You have the ability to change the default application for almost anything on your latest phones and accessories.

Multitask / Split Screen mode             

Ever since smartphones began doubling in their form factor, the ability to multitask on our smartphones have become easier over the years. With current smartphones models, you can have split screens for two applications running simultaneously to get work done so much faster. Other smartphone manufacturers that use the android platform have added a floating application feature that lets you use multiple applications at any given time. There’s so much more to learn about your phone. Keep reading.

Send Files over Wi-Fi

This is another feature that has been in the software for a long time. While NFC and Bluetooth has allowed us to transfer files from one phone to another, doing it over the wireless internet makes it so much better. Wi-Fi direct will open you the gateway to send or receive any sort of file from any smartphone, granted you have the right application installed in your phone. With the application installed, connect to the same internet or connect to your Wi-Fi hotspot and send away.

Control the Data you use

Now that we are connected to the internet almost every minute of the day, monitoring the data we use has become incredibly essential. Our smartphones have always been integrated with these features to control the data we use on a daily basis. Inbuilt are two key parameters to control your data. The first is the ability to set a limit to the amount of data you use and create a warning to remind you to control your data usage. The second is the option to turn off your mobile data once you’ve reached the final limit of data usage. This is one of the more helpful features on your smartphone if you happen to live in a country with expensive data packages.

Save Battery and Make your phone faster

Under the developer settings on your Android smartphone, you will come to find the preference to increase or decrease the animation speed. This may seem elementary to you, but altering this setting can either give you a longer or shorter phone battery life. Reducing the animation speed increase your battery life and vice versa.

Your Android smartphone is jam-packed with some of the best features out there. All you need to do is look a little deeper to find all the little gems to optimise your phone to be the best one out of the lot.