OxygenOS: 5 features you need to know about
Along with the competitive price, OxygenOS is a big reason fans pick OnePlus devices. The skin looks and feels a lot like stock Android, but packs in tons of useful features (unlike the competition). Here are five of the best ones you should know about.
App locker
App locker secures your data-sensitive apps from prying eyes. You have to use a PIN or the fingerprint scanner to open an app, which means only you can use it. The feature can be enabled for every app on your device.
The feature is super useful, especially if you have nosy friends who love playing with your device. You can use it for budgeting apps to make sure no one sees your financial info or apps like Messenger that contain private conversations between you and others. I also use it for Google Photos because I don't want anyone going through my images.
To set it up, go to Settings > Security & lock screen > App locker and type in your PIN code. Then just tap the "Add apps" option and choose the apps you want to lock. The feature also lets you hide notification content for an extra layer of security.
Gestures
OxygenOS supports both on- and off-screen gestures to help you get things done faster. On-screen gestures replace the standard navigation bar at the bottom of the screen (home, back, and multitasking buttons), which gives the UI a cleaner look. Once enabled, swiping up from the bottom center edge will go to the home screen, swiping up from the bottom right edge will go back, and swiping up from the bottom center edge and holding your finger on the screen brings up the multitasking window. It takes getting used to but works like a charm.
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Off-screen gestures are less complicated and even more useful. They allow you to draw an O, V, S, M, or W on the display when it's turned off to open an app of choice. It works great for the flashlight, camera, and any other app you want to launch quickly. There are also gestures available for music control: swipe two fingers down the display to pause/play or draw the < or > characters to move to the previous or next track.
Shelf
Shelf is a productivity tool on your home screen. It shows the current weather, lets you create notes, and offers quick access to recent contacts and apps. There's also a "Dashboard" feature available, which shows your phone's available storage, the current battery percentage, and how much data you have left in a given billing cycle.
Shelf is customizable, but only to a point. You can add in widgets from any app you have installed on your device and delete the ones you don't care about. You can also edit notes, although this feature wasn't available from the very beginning. You can't choose which contacts it shows, as Shelf only lists the last five to ten you've called.
You can access Shelf by swiping right on your home screen.
Overall, Shelf is a fantastic feature. I use it all the time on my OnePlus 3T, mainly for taking notes and checking my data consumption. Instead of opening a separate app to get the job done, all I have to do is swipe right on the home screen and I'm good to go. In case Shelf isn't your thing, you can turn it off with a few taps.
Gaming mode
Gaming mode is an OxygenOS feature that's designed to cut out distractions while you're playing games. It lets you block all notifications except for alarms and calls, and lock capacitive buttons to make sure you don't press any of them accidentally. On newer devices like the OnePlus 6, you can also disable automatic brightness during gaming sessions.
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To set up Gaming mode, head to Settings > Advanced > Gaming mode. You'll find a list of various options including "Lock buttons" and "Block notifications," which you can enable with a simple tap. Once that's done, select the "Add apps for Gaming mode" option below and choose the games during which you don't want to be disturbed.
The feature works for apps as well. Enabling it for YouTube when using it for a longer period of time — when watching a documentary or movie — is something to consider.
Parallel Apps
This OxygenOS feature is aimed at those who have multiple Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media accounts. Instead of constantly logging out of one account and into the other, you can create a cloned version of an app to use both accounts at the same time.
Setting up a parallel app is a breeze. Go to Settings > Apps > Parallel Apps to see all the supported apps. Tap the toggle switch next to the social network of choice and a parallel app will automatically be created and placed in the app drawer. Launch it, sign in with your secondary account, and you're good to go.
The supported apps include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Quora, and many others.
These are the top five OxygenOS features in my opinion, although a few other great ones also come to mind. Face Unlock allows you to unlock your device just by looking at it. Reading mode filters out blue light for a better reading experience, the option to capture a screenshot of an entire page, and the ability to hide the notch on the OnePlus 6.
Which OxygenOS feature is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!
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