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Xygen The Xygen OS won plaidits to be largely true to stock Android but has since developed more of its own personality. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, even if it bears a strong resemblance to Samsung’s One UI. Despite the visual changes, the OnePlus skin not only retains its many neat little features, but some of its recent revisions have also introduced new tricks to make your life a little easier.
We’ve put together a list of our favorite features hidden in the various nooks and cranes of OxygenOS.
Swipe up to find apps
With hundreds of apps installed on your phone, using the search bar is by far the fastest way to open the one you want, but it’s still a multi-step process. OnePlus takes things one step further by including a quick gesture that takes you directly to the app drawer search bar. Neat!
While swiping to open the app drawer, hold the seplit in the middle for seconds and that’s it. The keyboard automatically pops up, waiting for you to start typing in the search bar at the top. It is enabled by default and also works on older OnePlus phones. I can’t stress enough how useful and time saving this feature is.
Turn off the screen with a gesture
The hints lately seem to take full possession of our smartphones, but long before Google OnePlus had one thing for them. In addition to its own version of the full-screen navigation gesture, xygen is its favorite on-screen off gesture. The basic idea is to draw single-stroke characters on your phone’s screen when it stops taking quick steps, such as turning on the flashlight or jumping directly onto a video recording.
You can also program it to open the app of your choice, however, you need to unlock the phone before the app screen pops up. In addition, you can assign each character to open the rear or front camera directly. Outside of these alphabetical gestures, you get the usual double tap to wake up with some unique music controls. By drawing the pause (||), forward (>), and rear (<) symbols on the shut screen, you play / pause in that order, go to the next track, and return to the previous one This is a neat way to control music playback, and it works just like local players on apps like Spotify.
Head for Buttons and gestures Section of Settings Application, and then click Quick gestures. There you will find a complete list of these convenient and intuitive screen gestures.
Parallel applications
Having two instances of the same app simultaneously isn’t something you can enable on just about any phone, or at least the process of getting there isn’t particularly easy. Technically, you can use the same app on the same device profiles, but it’s often too much trouble for just one or two apps. OnePlus’ OxygenOS includes a handful of mobile skins that originally support this feature, and OnePlus calls its version parallel apps. People who use two SIM cards can use them to keep their accounts with both their phone numbers or for two instances of an application like Uber.
Among the apps I have installed on my phone, many social media and communication apps are supported, including Twitter, Telegram, Skype, WhatsApp and others. The list also includes cab hailing services like Uber and India’s Ola along with local mobile and paytm. The usability of parallel apps may vary depending on all the apps on your phone, but it seems to be supported outside of the more popular ones.
To access your custom list of supported apps, you need to hit Utilities Heading inside Settings. Once there, click Parallel applications. Toggle now on the application you want to duplicate, but be careful when you close any of them again: it will clear the parallel pattern data for good.
Live Citation Question
For people with hearing impairments or about someone on occasions when there is no option to turn up the volume, live cognition has been very helpful. The Pixel phone was initiated by the feature, but then Google introduced it to another OM. OnePlus is one of the very few that has been implemented so far.
In your phone’s volume controls, you’ll find an extra button to turn on the live caption whenever you need it. A live – and accurate – transcription of what’s going on on your screen will appear in the center. It works on the device and also when the phone is muted. It’s one of the simplest features that will amaze you with how you lived without it.
In landscape mode.
Quick start
We have all developed muscle memory for an application that we instinctively do for the moment we unlock our phone. You can cut that two-step process on one tap using Quick Launch. This feature allows you to select a small list of applications (or even application shortcuts) that you use frequently and show them on the screen when you press the fingerprint reader. You can slide out of the list and highlight the app, which will then open immediately.
Left and center: Quick start settings, Right: Fast launch in action
The gestures we’ve discussed before seem very close to the screen, but quick launches differ in some basic ways. For one, the latter becomes more complicated than all your device applications and its shortcuts, lets you jump directly into an application like adding a calendar lander entry or opening a new hidden tab in Chrome. Moreover, Quick Launch really feels faster than the screen off gesture, which requires two presses for the same work (because the phone has to be unlocked to launch the app).
As you might have guessed, the feature only works on OnePlus phones with an in-place fingerprint reader, so those who use older devices aren’t in luck. To access the option, go here Utilities In Settings And click Quick start. There you can enable it and choose from Really A long list of apps and shortcuts on your phone.
Quick response in the landscape
While messaging applications, in particular, have a hard time adjusting to landscape mode, the keyboard often takes up even more space. They are basically useless (and kind of frustrating) that way. However, xygen Xigen OS S has a tool that you can use to experience better chatting when someone interrupts your YouTube video.
When you hit reply on a notification banner while in landscape mode, your OnePlus phone will open a chat thread in the mini overlay on the left. A more tidy floating keyboard appears on the right, and it gets better if you have swipe typing enabled. This feature works as expected and that’s what I want to see on other phones as well.
OnePlus users can enable it Utilities Section of Settings Application.
Dark mode schedule
Dark mode on older OnePlus phones Following a cumbersome process, you need to manually dig into the settings app to get it working. Worse, this confusing process will mess up your customized theme as well.
Thankfully, the latest version of Oxygen OS S has added a much needed and more convenient scheduling feature. You can now set Dark mode to be punched automatically after sunset or in your own custom schedule. If you still want some manual control, you can easily add a toggle to the Quick Settings menu.
This new scheduling option is available under your phone’s display settings.
Many recent phones are adopting a dedicated support key – the idea of which was first widely paid by Samsung for its Bixby and voice this assistant. But in the days of using the button, you will find that it is more annoying than accidental pressing. If you’re one of those Oddballs who has a physical key to call a Google Assistant, you can do so on your OnePlus phone using the built-in xygen xigen feature On pro).
Under Buttons and gestures, You will find a toggle that allows you to hold the power key for half a second to open the voicemail button. If you turn this on, the power menu will appear on a long three-second press (again, except for the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro devices, which let you just keep one or the other). Above this option, there is another toggle that allows you to double-click the lock key to go directly to the My app. It is possible to use both of these features simultaneously.
OxygenOS is a jam-packed software software skin that does not fail to impress with all its fun little features. Beyond this short list of cherry-picked utilities, xygen xigen os s has a lot more to it. If you think we should have something on the list that you think, let us know in the comments.
Even more goodies
Updated to include search apps, live captions, quick response in landscape mode and swipe up gestures to schedule dark mode.
Ryan Hager and Scott Scrivens contributed to this post.
