15 hacks to improve your Android experience

OnePlus’ OxygenOS 15 software is one of the most feature-rich Android skins available, and that means if you’re happy to do a bit of digging through settings, there’s a lot you can discover. 

Whether you want to customise the icons, animations, and wallpapers, use some of the AI-powered features like screen recognition, or just use some of the shortcut gestures, there’s plenty to get to grips with. 

That said, here are 15 tips and tricks for getting the most out of the OxygenOS 15 experience on offer from the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R. 

Pulse Wallpaper

OnePlus’ latest software has a really cool depth effect wallpaper that lets you change the clock style font, and add wording behind a picture, creating a depth effect of layers. 

To access it, just open the Settings app and choose ‘Wallpaper and Style’. On the next screen, you’ll see Flux themes right at the top of the page. Tap ‘more themes’ and now scroll until you find ‘Pulse’. Pick a style you like and you can customise it on the next screen. 

Tap on the clock to change the style or colour of the clock font or even add weather information. Tapping the text lets you pick between some different words. Tapping depth enables or disables the depth effect that places the words behind your subject, while Style adds different textures to the wallpaper. 

If you swipe across to the left or right, you can also change the main Home Screen theme or change the always-on display. It’s pretty cool. 

AI Recognition

Like many other Android phone makers, OnePlus is experimenting with AI features, like the ability to recognise what’s on your screen. To enable this feature, go to Settings, then Accessibility and Convenience. Screen Recognition is one of the first options. Choose it, then toggle on the feature. 

You’ll need to approve some permissions the first time you enable it. But once it is active and you take a screenshot, you’ll see an option for extracting information from that screenshot, saved in your File Dock, which lives in the Side Bar of your phone for quick access. You can use it to quickly save an address, some instructions, or whatever else you might find useful. 

Pull-down gesture

On the Home Screen, you can swipe up with a thumb from one of the corners to bring all the icons closer to you so that you can quickly launch an app. 

To enable it, you have to go to your Home Screen settings by pinching on the Home Screen. From here, swipe across to ‘More’ at the bottom of the display. In the next menu, find ‘Icon pull-down gesture’. The next is just a toggle switch with an animation showing you how to work it. 

Turn it on, then return to your Home Screen. Now swipe up from the left or right corner until you’re at the app you want to launch, then let go to launch that app. 

Quick launch apps from the Lock Screen

If you have a couple of apps that you like to access as soon as you unlock your phone, there’s a cool feature OnePlus has had for a while called Quick Launch. With it enabled, you press and hold on the fingerprint sensor until app shortcuts appear, then just slide your thumb across the icon to dive straight in. 

It’s pretty handy if you just want to dive straight into WhatsApp, Slack, or whatever your favourite app might be. 

To set it up, open Settings and then Accessibility and Convenience. Find Quick Launch, tap it and toggle it on in the next screen. Once it’s on, a new graphic appears at the bottom where you can choose which apps you want to place, and in which positions to display them. 

To go further, tap Edit. On the next screen, you can choose specific functions like adding an event to your calendar, starting a countdown timer or any other shortcuts available from any apps you install. So you could, for example, get it to tag a song quickly in Shazam. 

Or, if you pick the Apps option, you can just choose to open an app as normal. You get five slots, so you can mix and match in a way that suits you. 

Swipe anywhere to access notifications

Another handy feature lets you access your notifications by swiping downwards anywhere on your Home Screen, so you never have to reach all the way to the top again – ideal on a phone with a 6.8-inch screen.

Go to your Home Screen settings by opening Settings, then tap ‘Home Screen and Lock Screen’. Now find the option in the list that says ‘Swipe down on the Home Screen’. When you tap that, you’ll get three different options to choose from. Choose the Notification and Quick Settings option. 

So now you can swipe down anywhere to get to your alerts. Pretty handy right? 

One-handed mode

There’s also a feature called One-Handed mode. With this enabled, it effectively means you can bring everything from the top half of the display down to make it easy to reach, just by swiping down right near the bottom edge of the screen. 

You can toggle it on by heading to Settings > Accessibility & Convenience, tapping ‘One-handed Mode’ and toggling it on in the next screen. 

Change your fingerprint animation

When you rest your finger on the sensor to unlock your phone, you’ll notice an animation that pulses as it recognises your scan. But you can actually change that animation. 

If you open the settings, scroll to wallpaper and style and tap on the fingerprint animation option at the bottom of the menu. OnePlus seems to add to them every year or so, which means you now get nine different options to choose from. Fill your boots. 

Install a custom icon pack

OnePlus’ software is one of the best for having the ability to change the look and feel of your Home Screen, as it lets you set a custom icon pack without needing to download another launcher. 

All you have to do is download an icon pack that you like from the Play Store, then on your Home Screen, tap and hold the wallpaper until you see the customisation options appear at the bottom of the screen. 

Tap ‘Icons’ and at the top of the pop-up menu that appears, you’ll see a row of any icon packs that you have installed. Simply swipe across until you get to the one you want, tap it, and your icon pack will be set. 

Bring back the power button

We all know by now that most Android phones have a side button used for accessing the virtual assistant. In this case, that’s Google Gemini. But if you’d rather it were a power button again, you can set it to do that, but the option is hidden away in the settings. 

Open Settings and scroll all the way down until you find Accessibility and Convenience. Scroll all the way down again, and you’ll find an option that says ‘Power Button’. Tap this. On the next screen, choose ‘Press and hold the Power button’, and now instead of ‘Digital Assistant’, pick ‘Power Menu’. 

Now, when you press and hold that side key, it’ll launch the power screen where you can turn off or reboot your phone the old-fashioned way. 

The OnePlus 13 has a Side Bar, which appears as a small tab on the right of the screen permanently. If you slide it across, you’ll find a bunch of different functions and shortcuts. Features like translation, screen recording and calculator live here. But if you want to customise it, you can. 

Just open it by swiping it across and tap the ‘edit’ tab at the bottom. On the next screen, you can add or remove any tools or apps that you want to change by tapping the plus or minus bubbles near the shortcut icon. 

Boost your phone’s resolution

The OnePlus 13 has a QHD+ resolution display, but by default, it’s not enabled. So if you want that extra crispy screen, you can get it by simply going to the Settings > Display, then tapping ‘Screen Resolution’. 

Now you’ll see three options;  pick ‘High’ and you’ll be using every pixel on the display, and fine details will look lovely and smooth. 

There are other features like Image Sharpener and Video Colour Boost also available, if you want to give your video and pictures some pop. They do make things look a bit artificial, so if you hate that, steer clear. 

Always-on display

Ironically, the OnePlus Always On display – despite its name – isn’t always on at all. Instead, it’s mostly off and wakes up when you tap the screen. But, you can set it to be on all the time, or between set hours of the day. 

Go to Settings > Wallpapers and Style and then tap the Always-on Display option. Now if you tap Display Settings, you’ll see options under ‘Display Mode’ where you can either have it scheduled for a specific time slot, or select All Day to enable it all day. 

Boost detail in photos using AI

Like so many other Android phones, there are AI tools for tweaking photos after you’ve taken them. One of OnePlus’ features lets you boost detail, which might come in handy if you’ve taken a photo with the zoom camera and it’s looking a bit blurry. 

Open the Photos app – the OnePlus one, not Google Photos – and find the picture you want to boost. Now tap ‘Edit’. On the next screen, you’ll see an ‘AI editor’ option. Tap it and choose the AI Detail Boost option, and wait for it to work its magic. 

There are also tools for removing items from the background of your photos and unblurring blurry images. Give them a try. 

Screen-off gestures

OnePlus has a bunch of pre-selected gestures you can draw on the screen when it’s off, to launch specific functions or apps. If you head to Settings > Accessibility and Convenience, then Gestures and Motions, the very top option is ‘Screen-off Gestures’. 

Open that and you can enable a bunch of different patterns, including double tapping to turn the display on or off, or you can draw a shape to launch an app. Just tap on the option, choose ‘Open an app’ and then choose which app you want. 

Scheduled power off

If you want, you can schedule your phone to power down, and then reboot again. So if you want it switched off overnight, and back on again in the morning, you can set it to do that. 

Just open Settings and head to Accessibility and Convenience. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and choose ‘Schedule power on/off. Now toggle the power-on and power-off switches on, and choose a set time and the days you want it to happen on.

You can, if you want, just choose to have it perform this automatic power off and reboot once a week.

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