OnePlus 7 Tips and Tricks

Android 9 (Pie)
Phone: OnePlus 7
Factory OS: Android 9 (Pie)

Recent Android versions use a special mode that hides all Android related visuals. The mode is called immersive mode and it essentially means certain Apps have the whole screen available.

Sometimes this can be annoying however and you want to see the time, signal strength or batter indicator.

To temporarily leave immersive mode, simply drag down your notifications screen and the phone will exit immersive mode so you can see other features.

From the Contact list or the Messaging list, swipe from Left to Right to call a Contact.

This might not work on all models.

To soft reset your phone press and hold the Power/Lock button for around 8 to 10 seconds. The phone will restart automatically.

If that doesn’t work, then remove the battery (if it has one). Wait 30 seconds and put the
battery back in. Then press the Power/Lock button to turn the phone on.

Some devices also provide reboot option on pressing Power Button.

It is best to avoid task killers such as Advanced Task Killer. Android is designed to automatically pre-load certain applications, even if you don’t load them yourself. If it starts to run low on memory, it will smartly unload the oldest running apps automatically.

Manually killing tasks will only mean they get loaded in memory again. Task killers can make the phone slow, laggy, or drain battery life more quickly.

There is a great app called Moves by a company called Protogeo that makes use of your devices accelerometer to record your movements, whether by walking, cycling or running.

Go to the Play Store and search for Moves.

There is a hidden Android Easter egg on the phone that Google has built into your device.

Go to Settings. Then scroll down to About device. Then tap on the Android version option 5 times.

Once you see something on the screen, you can then rub the screen with your finger to produce another surprise. If rubbing doesn’t work then try tapping with your finger. A combination of the above should work.

By the way don’t expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.

When using your Calendar App, you will normally be in Month view. To quickly switch to Year view, you can pinch the screen to zoom out.

This is useful if you want to quickly jump backwards or forwards through a few months at a time.

To go from Year to Month, you can do a reverse pinch.

The following is a list of commands that can be used for the Google Now service. This can be accessed by using the Google Search widget on your homescreen. Simply press the little microphone icon and say the commands below:

General
Search for
Who invented
Show me the stocks for
Author of
How old is
How tall is

Time & Date
What time is it in
When is the ?in
When is the sunset in
What is the time zone of
Time at home

Weather
Show me the weather
Is it going to rain tomorrow?
Do I need an umbrella?
Do I need a jacket
What is the weather in
How is the weather on ?going to be?

Maps / Location
Map of
Show me the nearby ?on map
Where is ?situated?
in
Navigate to ?in car
I am hungry (shows all nearby food points on map)
How far is ?from

Calculations / Conversions
How much is ?times
What is ?percent of
Square root of
?… ?equals
What is the numerical value of Pi
Convert ?into
Temperature of the sun

Sports
points table
Who won the last match between ?and
scorecard
Schedule of ?games

Websites
Go to
Open
Show me
Browse to

Entertainment
Listen to
Play
YouTube
When was the first episode of
movies
Who acted in
Who is the producer of
When was ?released
Runtime of

Notes / Reminders
Remind me to ?at
Wake me up in
at
Self note to
Set alarm for

Contacts / Communication
Call
Send ?to ?via text
(shows the contact card)
Call ?in
Send a text to ?
Email to , B C C , Subject , message

Flights
Flight Status of
Has ?landed/departed
When will ?land

Other
Do a barrel roll

To add an email or phone number to your contacts from a text message, you can long-press on the email / phone number. Then select Add to contacts

To remove numbers from the call log that you don’t want anyone seeing, then open your Call Log.

This will normally be found on your Apps list or you can also go to your Dialler and find Logs or Call Logs.

Then press and hold on the contact you want to remove. When the Menu appears, press Delete.