Top 6 developer options on your Android to make your handset run better

Android is an open platform, and we all love it for the openness it has to offer. Among the many benefits it has to offer, one of them is the option to customize a device as per the requirements of a user. Depending upon the smartphone, the OEM can also introduce a number of new features, and with the Developer Options, you can even enable certain useful features that you find important. Developer Options on an Android device has a number of options, which could deliver more to power users, and you should enable or at least change certain settings under Developer Options.

Even though the name ‘Developer Options’ apparently means, it is only meant for developers, it is not so. A handful of features under Developer Options, when changed can make your device run more smoothly exactly the way you want. So, if you are a gamer, or do some heavy tasks on your Android device, you should have a look at the options. But today, I will talk about the top developer options that you should change on your Android device to get better performance. However, depending upon your usage, you might not need to enable every single feature. Among all the options I will discuss here, just change those that you find important, or will have a positive impact on your smartphone usage.

So, without any further delay, let’s get started with the Developer Options that you should change on your Android device to run it smoother.

Better rendering on mobile games

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If you play a lot of games on your Android and want to make the gaming experience even better, just enable ‘Force 4x MSAA’ or multisample anti-aliasing within Developer Options. This feature will improve the rendering of graphics on apps and games that OpenGL 2.0. This feature is disabled by default as it drains more battery juice. If you don’t care about more battery life, and the only thing that you need is better gaming performance, you should enable this feature on your Android. I have also seen this option to get disabled after every restart in some handsets. So before you start playing your favourite game, make sure you have enabled the option.

Limit processes in the background

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I really don’t want to recommend this feature, as your experience will drastically be affected, if this feature is enabled within Developer Options. However, if you are having a very old Android phone, having low RAM, or your phone is very slow, just tap on ‘Background process limit’ and choose ‘At most, 3 processes’, as that is the most recommendable option. It means, a maximum of 3 apps will run in the background, instead of many, which will not slow your device down, and, you can even access the apps, which you have recently used. Thus, this option brings the best of both worlds. You can set 1, 2 or 4 processes, as well, but it is up to you. You can even enable ‘Don’t keep activities’, but that is not recommended unless you are having a painfully slow Android device.

Change the animation scale

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If you are having a slow Android phone, and it takes an eternity to show you the animations, changing the animation scale can come in handy for you. By default, the animation scale is set to 1x, however, you can turn off the animations completely, or set the animation scale to .5x, which is the option that I will recommend. Just set the value for three options ‘Window animation scale’, ‘Transition animation scale’, and ‘Animator duration scale’ to ‘Animation scale .5x’, and you should notice a difference in using your handset. This will actually make the animations faster, and you will have to wait for less for each tap to perform its action.

Get access to supported Bluetooth Audio Codecs

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Google added the support for new compatible audio codecs with Android Oreo, and if you are using a Bluetooth headset or any other Bluetooth audio device that supports the new audio codecs, your handset will automatically switch to the most appropriate codec that is supported on your Bluetooth audio device. But, if you know, your Bluetooth audio device supports other better audio codecs, you can enable support for that manually by going to Developer Options, and then by choosing the most appropriate audio codec under ‘Bluetooth Audio Codec’. The aptX and aptX HD audio codecs are supported on most Bluetooth audio devices nowadays, and you should give the option a try. But choosing any codec will not enable the same if your Bluetooth audio device doesn’t support the same.

Allow ringtones on Bluetooth earphones

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When you are using a Bluetooth headset, and you get a call, most Bluetooth headsets will play a customized audible message, like ‘Incoming Call’, and some headsets might also play the number from where you are getting the call. But, you can even make the ringtone play on your headset by allowing the ‘Enable in-band ringing’ within Developer Options. This feature can be useful if you have customized ringtones for certain users or groups of users, and you do not want to take the phone out of your pocket to see who is calling, and then decide, whether you should receive the call or not.

Show the CPU usage

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If your battery is draining faster than normal, there can actually be a number of reasons behind it. But, if you find, your handset is getting warmer, then it can be because your processor is working continuously in the background, and it is triggered by some malicious app on your handset. Before you finally go further, you can enable the option that says ‘Show CPU usage’, and the real-time CPU usage will be displayed as an overlay on your screen. It will show you the CPU load, and the CPU usage in the form of a graph. I know, it will not look cool, but it can at least help you to know, whether it is the processor that is working continuously, and is the cause behind draining your battery. Once you are sure, the processor is draining the battery, you can later find the malicious app out, and take the necessary steps against the culprit.

With every new version of Android, Google is keeping on adding an array of extra developer options that you can find in handy and improve the performance of your Android handset. In the latest version, i.e. Android 10, you can also enable free-form mode, which is supposed to be used on foldable smartphones.

So, it makes a lot of sense to tweak certain options in the ‘Developer Options’ menu and make your handset cater to your needs in an even better way. So that was my list of top 6 Developer Options on Android that you should tweak. Do you have anything to say? Feel free to comment on the same below.

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