Have you ever checked out hidden Android developer options in your Android phone?

In case you didn't know, Android has an awesome hidden settings menu called "Developer options" that contains a lot of advanced and unique features.

Every Android phone comes equipped with the ability to enable Developer options, which lets you test some features and access parts of the phone that are usually locked away. As you might expect, Developer options are cleverly hidden away by default, but it's easy to enable if you know where to look.

How Can I Access Developer Options In Android?

To unlock Developer options, launch Settings and scroll all the way down to the About phone section near the bottom. Near the bottom of this page, you should see the Build Number entry. Tap it several times until you see a message that says You are now a developer!

This process to enable Android developer options will always found inside the "Build number" option in settings irrespective of the phone.

Once you do this, go back to the main Settings page and tap the System category. Expand the Advanced section and you'll find a new Developer options menu entry.

Note that the "Developer options" will be found under different sub-setting options (like "Additional settings" or "More" etc.) under "Settings" because it depends upon the phone.

Now that you've opened this menu, which Developer options will you use? We'll discuss a few useful choices which are really very interesting.

1. Stay Awake

With this option enabled, your phone's screen will stay on when plugged into a charger. For developers, this is useful for keeping an eye on your app over long periods of time, but normal users can take advantage of it, too.

If you need to keep Twitter or a similar app open for live updates without regularly tapping the screen to keep it awake, this setting can help.

2. OEM unlocking

As you may know, most Android devices give you the freedom to install a custom ROM, which replaces the default OS with a new one. To do this, you must first unlock your bootloader. Without doing so, the flashing process, which overwrites the current OS, won't work.

Enabling this setting does not actually unlock the bootloader; it gives the phone permission to do so later using fast boot commands. Thus, you shouldn't enable this unless you plan to install a custom ROM on your device. Having it enabled makes your phone more vulnerable.

3. Running Services

In Windows, you can use the Windows Task Manager to review current processes. Android doesn't have an app equivalent to this, but this Developer options entry is close.

Running Services lets you view how much RAM currently running apps are using. Tap one to see each of its current processes and services. However, you don't need to worry about anything you see here. Android does a fine job at managing RAM on its own, so you shouldn't need to worry about this.

4. USB debugging

No list of Android Developer options tips would be complete without mention of USB debugging. It's essential for developers and useful for everyone else.

USB debugging lets your Android device interface with your computer by using certain commands. It's a powerful function. But to stay secure, you should only enable this option when you need it, then turn it off afterward.

5. Select mock location app

It's no secret that our phones regularly track our location, which raises privacy concerns. But did you know that Android is able to report fake locations instead of where you really are? This setting requires you to install a separate app that can create mock locations, such as Location Changer or Fake GPS location.

Once you have the app installed and selected here, you can use it to make your phone report that you're anywhere you like. However, keep in mind that this only spoofs GPS coordinates---apps and websites can detect where you really are through other data points, such as your IP address.

6. Cellular data always active

With this option on, even when your phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network, it will keep the mobile data connection alive. It does so to make network switching faster, which is convenient if you often switch between the two.

Whether you should use this depends on your use case. Having mobile data on in the background can use up more battery life if you're in an area with poor reception, meaning you might want to turn it off. However, if you use Wi-Fi calling, you should leave this enabled because, without it, calls will drop if you switch network types.

7. Disable absolute volume

By default, the absolute volume is enabled, which means that the volume buttons on your phone and your Bluetooth device both control the same volume level. Generally, this is convenient, but it can cause problems with some Bluetooth devices.

Turning absolute volume off means that your phone volume and the Bluetooth device will use two separate volume levels. Try disabling it (by turning on the slider) if your Bluetooth device doesn't work properly with your phone, or has extremely loud or quiet volume.

You may need to disconnect and reconnect any Bluetooth devices, or even reboot your phone, for absolute volume changes to take effect.

8. Show taps

When this option is enabled, a small circle appears on the screen wherever your finger touches. This can be useful in two situations. The first is for accessibility---those who have difficulty with precise motion might appreciate having feedback of where they're touching.

9. Animation Scales

Depending on how fast your phone is, you might not notice them, but Android plays animations when opening or switching between apps. Using the Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale, you can adjust how long these transitions take.

10. Override force dark

Android 10 introduced a system-wide dark mode. If you have it turned on at Settings > Display > Dark theme, compatible apps should also appear in dark mode, but not all apps support this yet. Enabling this slider makes all apps use a dark mode, which is nice if you hate light modes, but results will vary.

11. Smallest width

If you want to get an experience of tablet and phone both on your device then this is the option which you should check it out. As you increase the value of the smallest width you will get closer to the layout/view which is going to be shown on Tablet and as you decrease the value of the smallest width you will get closer to the layout/view which is going to be shown on Phone. 

12. Don't keep activities

When you enable this option, Android will destroy every app's process as soon as you leave it. Developers can use this to test how their app behaves under different circumstances, and we can use it to see how awful task killers are.

Task killers destroy processes running in the background---processes that Android keeps alive to make sure you can switch back to other apps quickly. This ends up forcing your phone to do more work stopping and starting the process than it would if you had just left it alone