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Android is chock-full of features that appeal to a wide variety of users. Some of those features have been met with wide acceptance, while others tend to be relegated to a smaller cross-section of users.
Some features are there, waiting for you to make use of them, and yet they go either ignored or underused.
One such example is Quick Settings. This feature has been available on Android for quite some time, and exists as a collection of tiles at the top of the Notification Shade that give you quick access to various features and settings found in the Android OS.
Most users either ignore Quick Settings or just stick with the default, not realizing they can customize the tiles to be exactly what they need.
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There are a surprisingly large number of Quick Settings tiles you can add to the Notification Shade, such as: mic access, camera access, color inversion, data saver, extra dim, one-handed mode, sound amplifier, VPN, recorder, focus mode, live caption, calculator, digital car key, and TV remote. In fact, when you install apps that support Quick Settings (which many do), you’ll find Quick Settings Tiles for those apps as well (such as Bitwarden, ProtonVPN, DuckDuckGo VPN, and more).
How Quick Settings work
When you pull down the Notification Shade, you’ll see four “pill” buttons at the top of the window. If you pull the Shade down a second time, you’ll see eight such buttons. If you then swipe to the left, you’ll see even more quick tiles. Keep swiping until you come to the end of however many such tiles have been added.
If done right, Quick Settings can make your Android life considerably more efficient.
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Tap any one of those tiles, and either the app will open, the service will start, or you can choose from the available options.
For example, if you pull down the Notification Shade and tap Modes, the default (and custom) modes will appear in a pop-up for you to select.
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If you have custom Modes set up, they will appear
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Some Quick Settings tiles (such as the Flashlight or the QR Code Scanner) simply trigger an action or a feature on and off. Tap the Battery Saver tile, and it automatically switches your device to battery saver mode.
The essence of Quick Settings tiles is to make your life with Android more efficient, and the feature does a good job of that.
Customizing Quick Settings tiles
To get the most out of Quick Settings, it’s important that you customize the tiles that appear in the Notification Shade. Keep too many in the area and you’ll lose a certain level of efficiency. Too few and it defeats the purpose.
The object here is to get the perfect collection of tiles, so using Android is as streamlined as possible. To customize the Quick Settings, pull the Notification Shade down twice and tap the pencil icon. You will then be presented with a long list of tiles available. Before you add any tiles, I would first suggest that you remove the default tiles you don’t plan on using. To remove a tile, tap and drag it from the top section to the bottom section. Keep removing tiles until you have only what you need or want at the top.
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After tapping the Pencil icon, this is what you’ll see.
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Once you’ve done that, do the reverse, and drag the tiles you want from the bottom to the top. With all of the tiles added to the Quick Settings section of the Notification Shade, you can then tap and drag to arrange them in the order you need. For example, you can drag the tiles you use the most to the first page (so you don’t have to swipe to access them).
I tend to arrange my tiles with the most used at the top row, starting from left to right.
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After you’ve finished arranging the tiles, tap the back arrow to exit the edit screen, and you’re done.
If you approach Quick Settings tiles as if they are there to help you and make your Android life a bit easier, they’ll reward you with just that. Take the time and set it up right, and you’ll find Android to be more enjoyable and user-friendly.
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