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(Pocket-lint) – With every new OnePlus phone comes a new version of Android-based software. For the OnePlus 10 Pro that’s especially true since it’s adopted what is – essentially – a tweaked version of Oppo’s ColorOS.
Whether you want to know how to use the virtual RAM feature, how to use handy gestures to take a screenshot, or use the Android 12 one-handed mode, there’s plenty in here to discover.
Find out some of the most useful features in our video below or continue scrolling for the written guide:
1. See how much RAM you’re using
If your phone is running slow, or you just like numbers, there’s a way to show how much of your phone’s RAM you’re using at any given time in the recent apps view. Just open up your home settings by long pressing the wallpaper and tapping the ‘More’ cog, scroll down to ‘Recent tasks manager’ toggle on the switch next to ‘Display RAM/memory information for recent tasks’.
Now when you open up the recent tasks view you’ll see a RAM usage statistic at the bottom of the screen.
2. Expand your RAM using your internal storage
If you’re finding you need extra RAM, you can use part of the phone’s storage as virtual RAM. In fact, the phone already has this enabled by default and adds 3GB. But you can expand further, up to an additional 7GB. To do that, go to Settings > About Device and then tap ‘RAM’. Now you’ll see a slider on screen that lets you expand by a further 5GB or 7GB. Choose how much additional memory you want.
3. Bring back the power button
In recent years, it seems the default action when you press and hold the sleep/wake key on the side is to launch an assistant of some kind rather than bringing up the power off and reboot options. However, you can change this. Go to Settings > System Settings > Power Button. Now tap ‘press and hold the power button’ and choose ‘power menu’ from the list.
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4. Auto-switch to receiver during calls
Often times I find when we’re on hold on the phone we default to putting the phone on loudspeaker and then wait until someone answers at which point we want to switch to the earpiece and bring the phone up to an ear.
With a OnePlus phone you can enable a function that does this switch automatically when you lift the phone to your ear. Go so Settings > System settings > Gesture and motions. Now toggle on the switch next to ‘Auto switch to receiver’. Now whenever you pick up the phone with the loudspeaker enabled, it’ll automatically switch when it’s next to your ear.
5. Swipe to take a screenshot
This is one of our favourite features, and it’s the ability to snap a screenshot with three fingers on the screen, rather than fiddling with the button combination. Just use three fingers and swipe down on the screen, and it’ll snap a screenshot. If it doesn’t, check that the feature is enabled by going to Settings > System settings > Gestures and motions > then toggle on the ‘Swipe down with 3 fingers to take a screenshot’ option.
6. One-handed mode
So this one’s actually a standard feature of Android 12 now, and it’s the ability to swipe down on the screen to bring down hard-to-reach items (like toggles/search fields etc). Head to Settings > System Settings > One-handed mode and then toggle it on. Now when you swipe down at the bottom of the screen, it brings down the top half of the interface to make those hard-to-reach elements easier to get to without stretching or needing two hands.
7. Icon pull-down
Along a similar theme to one-handed mode, you can perform something called an icon pull down on your home screen to quickly get to an app you want to launch. Go to Settings > Home screen and lock screen and now choose ‘Icon pull-down gesture’. Toggle it on.
Now go back to your home screen, then swipe upwards from the left or right corner and you’ll see all your icons squish down into that corner. Keep your thumb on the screen and just let go when you get to the app or folder you want to open.
8. Show icons instead of numbers for notifications
By default whenever you have notifications waiting, the OnePlus software shows a small number in the status bar at the top. If you’d rather see icons – so that you know which apps have alerts waiting for attention – you can switch to those instead. Just go to Settings > Notification and Status Bar, and then choose ‘Status Bar’. On the next screen the very top option is ‘Notification Icons’. Choose this, and then select icons from the pop up menu.
9. Melody notification sounds
For years when you choose a notification sound the only real option has been to have the same alert sound for every single notification. But with the melody option, you can have it so that when multiple notifications come through in quick succession, the sound creates a melody, rather than just playing the same single sound for every one. It’s a feature introduced by Oppo in ColorOS 11 and now it’s available in OxygenOS 12 too.
Just go to Settings > Sound and vibration and scroll down until you find ‘Notification sound’. At the top you’ll see Melody, along with four coloured boxes, each represents a different instrument sound. Choose the one you like the sound of, and your Melody feature will be enabled.
10. Quickly disable camera and microphone access
One of the new features introduced in Android 12 was the ability to quickly toggle off the microphone and camera from your quick settings shade. With OnePlus’ software, those toggles are not in the sheet by default, but you can add them.
Drop down your quick settings as usual and then tap the little pencil to edit. In that first screen you’ll see a toggle for mic access and another for camera access. Just drag and drop them up into the sheet where you want them to be. Now when you drop it down, you can easily tap to block access to either your camera or microphone.
11. Set up work/life balance feature
In the latest version of OxygenOS, OnePlus has introduced a feature to help with your work/life balance.
Go to settings and find ‘Special Features’, now choose ‘Work Life Balance’. Tap ‘Set up work mode’ and on the next screen you can determine what times it is auto enabled and what days. By default that’s set to 9am to 6pm on weekdays. You can change that if you want to, or if you’d rather it was based on location you can choose to have it based on when you connect to your work office Wi-Fi, or when you’re at your work location.
Then you can choose which Gmail accounts are work, and beneath that, work apps you’d like to still be notified by during your work day.
Then you do the same but for ‘Life mode’ which again – you can set up based on time, location or Wi-Fi connection at which point you can ensure you only get notifications from personal apps and accounts, and work accounts don’t come through. It’s pretty handy.
12. Optimised charging
OnePlus’ latest phone charges really fast, but if you’re a night time charger you probably don’t need to be charging quickly all the time. You can increase the longevity of your battery by enabling the optimised charging feature. What this does is charges the first 80 per cent quickly at night time, but then waits until just before you wake up (or your morning alarm time) to fill up the last 20 per cent.
It should be enabled by default, but if it’s not you can enable it. Go to Settings > Battery > Advanced settings and then toggle on the ‘Optimised night charging’ toggle.
13. Easter egg
This is a classic OnePlus feature and, if you’ve had a OnePlus phone before, it’s likely you already knew about it. But if you head to the preinstalled calculator app and type ‘1 + =’ you’ll see an Easter egg appear on screen.
14. Choose a custom accent colour
This isn’t new feature either, but the method of accessing it is slightly different to before. You can choose a custom accent colour for the user interface. Just head to Settings > Personalisations and select ‘Colours’. You’ll see a colour wheel in the bottom right corner. Tap it, and now move the dial until you find the exact colour you want. Now that colour will appear as the accent in multiple interface layers, like your quick settings shade.
Writing by Cam Bunton.
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