18 OnePlus 6 Hidden Feature, Useful Tips and Tricks

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Performance and software have always lent OnePlus flagship killers a cutting edge. The recently launched OnePlus 6 is a performance powerhouse and runs Android 8.1 Oreo-based Oxygen OS out of the box.

The Oxygen OS remains to be one of our favorite custom interfaces around. It keeps things simple, retains stock Android positives, and overcomes its shortcomings with a few handy extras.

Here is how you can make the most of the software running on the OnePlus 6.

Important Note: Android 9.0 Pie based Oxygen OS 9 is now available for OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T. We have covered some new features for the new software in a separate article. 

1. Customize Shelf and store membership cards

With our OnePlus 6, we don’t often have to go beyond the Shelf, that occupies the leftmost pane of the home screen, for much.

With a single left swipe, you can access 10 of your most frequently used apps and 10 of your frequently dialed contacts. Different items are stacked in separate cards on the shelf and you can drag them up or down to arrange them. You can also delete cards altogether or add new ones.

you can also add your membership and priority cards here and this way, you won’t have to carry them all with you.

 

If you want to get rid of the shelf, just long press the home screen, select “Home Settings” and toggle shelf off.

Bonus tip: From Home settings, you can also toggle off “Add icon to home screen”. This way, new apps you download won’t clutter your home screen.

2. Add Toolbox To Shelf

OnePlus has also added a new Toolbox option with a new update. The toolbox includes important apps for specific tasks that you’d need to engage with every now and then. There is a calculator, Selfie shortcut, recorder, timer, and a File sharing tool.

3. Access Hidden Space for Apps on OnePlus 6

OnePlus has also added a hidden space where you can hide apps. You can shift apps you need to keep private from app drawer to hidden space. To move them back, just long press the app icon.

To access hidden space, you will have to open the App drawer and then drag the hidden space from the sidebar on the left.

4. Turn auto call recording Off/ On on OnePlus 6

OnePlus 6 has a very elaborate call recorder built-in. You can turn auto call recording on for all calls, for specific contact or for favorite contacts.

In fact, you can access the option to turn on auto call recording from the menu that pops up when you ring a contact. You cannot, however, turn it off the same way.

To turn call recording off on OnePlus 6, open the Phone app. Click on the triple dot menu and select ‘Settings’. You will see ‘Call record’ option at the top. From here, you can switch off Auto call recording.

5. Enable Quick Search

A simple swipe up from the home screen opens the App Drawer. If you want the gesture to open App Search and to trigger keyboard in one go, you can enable Quick Search. This way you can get to apps that you are looking for in no time.

To do so, open the app drawer. Now tap the menu icon on the corner and select ‘enable quick search’. We’d have liked the option to access phone settings and contacts through quick search as well, but for now, you can only use it to search through apps on phone or on play store.

6. Use Dual apps or Parallel apps

OnePlus 6 also has the option to turn on dual Apps on the phone.  Which is to say, you can have two WhatsApp, two Facebook, and so on to run different accounts of each on the same phone.

To access parallel apps, just go to settings>>Apps>> Parallel apps. Now turn the feature on for the required app.

7. Manage the OnePlus 6 Display – Notch, colors, Fonts, and more.

The first thing you should do after you unbox your OnePlus 6 is to tune its display (Settings>> Display).

Choose color profile – The default colors on the screen lean towards cold. We’d advise you to switch to sRGB or DCI –P3 color mode. If it feels too yellowish, just give it a couple of hours and you will feel right at home.  These presets are more accurate and – more importantly – they are lighter on your eyes.

Decide between the notch – You will also see an option to hide the notch here. You can live with both alternatives before you make up your mind.

Also Read: 10 Best Phones with iPhone X Like Notch Display

Turn on Ambient display: With the notch limiting the number of icons on the Status bar, the Ambient display is more useful than ever before and we recommend that you turn it on. This way you can see icons of apps that are pushing app notifications without waking the screen.

Change Theme and accent – One of the most popular Oxygen OS features is its dark theme. You will find the theme option under display settings and you can choose between Default, Light, and Dark themes. You can also choose the second accent color through the UI.

From Display settings, you can also change fonts, turn on reading mode for apps and change font size.

8. Customize LED notification Color

The OnePlus 6 notch also makes room for the notification LED. You can also decide the color that LED glows for different notifications, and also decide for what apps LED notifications would work.

For instance, you could turn off LED notification for all apps except the most important few.

9. Use Gaming Mode to avoid interruptions

Gaming mode is one of the few new software features OnePlus has added to Oxygen OS with the 6. The OnePlus 6 is an excellent phone for gaming and the new gaming mode gives you some useful options to avoid interruptions.

The gaming mode can be used to route all calls via speakers, to turn off pop-up notifications while gaming, to keeps brightness unchanged, to channel data to gaming app on a priority basis, and also offers a gaming battery saver option. This is something hardcore gamers will appreciate.

Go to settings>> Advanced>> Gaming Mode.

10. Turn on OTG on OnePlus 6

The OnePlus 6 supports USB OTG, but the feature is turned off by default.  Go to Settings>>Advanced and turn on OTG.

 

If you do this very often, you can edit quick settings and add an OTG Tile.

11. Improve Face Unlock in Low light

The Face Unlock on the OnePlus 6 is extremely fast. You can, however, improve accuracy in low light by turning on “Face Unlock assistive lighting”. You can access the option from Settings>> Security & lock screen>> Face Unlock.

12. Switch data

The OnePlus 6 also supports Dual SIM Dual VoLTE. So, just in case you are using two 4G SIM cards and want to leach 4G data from both, you can quickly switch data between the two using the “Switch Data” quick settings tile.

Also Read: 10 Best Phones With Dual SIM Dual VoLTE Support

13. Navigation Gestures

Apart from rearranging navigation buttons, you can also completely replace them with navigation gestures on the OnePlus 6. A simple swipe up from the middle will take you home, and a swipe from either side will act as back. Swipe and hold from the center for recent apps.

Gestures aren’t as fast as recent apps and you will be giving up on Google assistant shortcut, but they do make the screen feel more immersive. You can turn on gestures from Settings>> Buttons>> Navigation bar and gestures.

14. Use fingerprint sensor as the camera shutter

 

Apart from navigation gestures, OnePlus 6 also has extensive onscreen and offscreen gesture support. Go to Settings>> Gestures, and you can access options like double tap to wake, the option to use fingerprint sensor as a shutter (quite useful in clicking selfies), and more.

15. Quick Pay

One of the India centric features on the Oxygen OS is Quick Pay. If you frequently pay merchants using Paytm you can activate Quick Pay and directly open Paytm payment page by long pressing the fingerprint gesture.

For instance, people who use Paytm to pay for dairy products daily could benefit from Quick Pay.

Go to Settings>> Security & Lockscreen to access Quick Pay.

16. Manage status bar icons

OnePlus has removed the option to show battery percentage on status bar due to space constraints resulting from the notch.

You can still customize the shape of the battery indicator, and choose what icons you wish to see on the status bar. For instance, you could remove VoLTE label and free up space for more useful icons.

17. OnePlus 6 Portrait Mode – Customize Bokeh Shapes

OnePlus 6 also allows you to change the shape of the background blur while using the dual cameras. Just open the portrait mode and select the shape you’d prefer from the icon on the top left.  The end result isn’t very discernible, though.

18. Slow motion Videos on OnePlus 6

The OnePlus 6 also allows you to shoot 60 seconds of slow motion videos (HD) at 480fps. The quality of the footage is reasonably good if you shoot outdoors.

To shoot slow-motion videos on OnePlus 6, just open the camera, swipe up and tap on the Slow-motion video option.

18 OnePlus 6 Tips and Tricks – Things to do

These are some of the useful OnePlus 6 features that you can benefit from. The remarkable performance, power-efficient AMOLED screen, and the long-lasting battery on the 6 further ensure that you need not to worry about user experience taking a hit when you turn on these extra features.

Also Check: 8 Best OnePlus 6 alternatives you can buy

Deepak SinghDeepak Singh
Deepak has more than 8 years of experience in covering technology for several eminent publications in India. He currently leads an enthusiastic team of young writers at Smartprix and tries to uphold the highest quality standards.

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6 Comments
User
manoj
Anonymous
4 years ago

I can’t find LED Notification

Reply
User
Steve
Anonymous
4 years ago

I can’t find the dual app option.please assist

Reply
User
Deepak Singh
Anonymous
4 years ago

Go to Settings >>Ultilities and select Parallel apps

User
Shadab Khan
Anonymous
4 years ago

Really good post. I see you last updated on August 13, 2019 You can still edit and update the battery percentage option

Reply
User
david jones
Anonymous
5 years ago

Great. These new features are on my OnePlus 6 Mobile. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Reply
User
Kall Ramanathan
Anonymous
5 years ago

Hi Deepak, After the upgrade to Android Pie, the shelf displays widgets using too much space above & below each widget leading to a very unappealing look. Any ideas / tips to take care of this?

Reply
User
PhoneGeek
Anonymous
5 years ago

We can display the battery percentage in the Oneplus6 despite presence of notch.

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