Summary
I’ve been using Android since the days when “Cupcake” and “Donut” were cutting-edge software, so I generally assume I know my way around the OS. I know where Developer Options live, I’ve spent far too much time tweaking animation speeds, and I can usually find whatever setting I need without searching for it. Android has accumulated so many features over the years, though, that even people who know the OS well can miss things. Some are buried in Settings, while others only appear after you enable an obscure toggle or use the right hardware. Recently, I went digging through the parts of Android I usually ignore and found six features that made me wonder how long they’d been sitting there without me noticing. Snooze button My notification shade doesn’t have to be a to-do list I’ve always treated notifications as a binary choice: deal with them now or dismiss them and hope I remember whatever they were trying to tell me. Android has a better option. Notification snoozing lets you temporarily dismiss an alert and have it return later, which is useful for emails, reminders, messages, and anything else you don’t want sitting in the notification shade all day. Depending on your phone, the snooze control may appear when you expand a notification or partially swipe it aside. You can then choose how long Android should hide it before bringing it back. Where to find it:
- Pixel: Settings > Notifications > Allow notification snoozing
- Samsung Galaxy: Settings > Notifications > Advanced settings > Show snooze button I like this for delivery updates, messages I can’t answer immediately, and reminders that arrive while I’m doing something else. It saves me from leaving old notifications sitting there as makeshift reminders. App Pinning It’s perfect when someone wants to borrow your phone There’s always a slightly awkward moment when you hand somebody your unlocked phone to show them a photo, map, or video and hope they don’t start wandering through everything else. App Pinning gives you a safer way to do it. Once you pin an app, the person holding your phone can keep using that app but can’t freely switch into your messages, gallery, browser, or anything else without first unpinning it. You can also configure Android to require your lock-screen credentials before the phone becomes usable normally again. That makes App Pinning handy when someone needs your phone to make a call, check directions, play a game, or look through something you’ve already opened. Unpinning depends on which navigation system you use. Gesture navigation typically has you swipe up and hold, while three-button navigation uses Back and Recents together. Where to find it:
- Pixel: Settings > Security & privacy > More security & privacy > App pinning
- Samsung Galaxy: Settings > Security and privacy > More security settings > Allow apps to be pinned. To use it, open your Recents (multitasking) view, tap the app’s icon at the top of the card, and select Pin (or “Pin this app”). Live Caption It can put subtitles on audio that never had them I often browse my phone somewhere I can’t play audio, whether that’s a waiting room, a quiet train, or bed when my wife is already asleep. Normally, that means hoping whatever I’m watching has decent subtitles. Live Caption gives Android its own captioning system. On supported phones, it can transcribe speech from videos, podcasts, audio messages, and other media without relying on the app to provide subtitles. After the required language pack is downloaded, the captioning is processed on the phone instead of sending the audio off to a server. A floating caption box appears over whatever you’re doing, and you can move it around if it blocks something important. In my experience, it works well enough with ordinary dialogue that I can follow plenty of short videos without ever turning the sound on. Where to find it:
- Pixel: Press a volume button, then tap the Live Caption icon below the volume controls.
- Samsung Galaxy: Settings > Accessibility > Hearing enhancements > Live Caption. You can also add Live Caption to Quick Settings on supported Galaxy phones. Audio Sharing (Auracast) The headphone splitter finally went wireless I knew Android could connect to multiple Bluetooth devices, but I had somehow missed that newer phones can actually broadcast audio to several compatible listeners at once. The feature uses Auracast, part of Bluetooth LE Audio, so nearby earbuds, headphones, or hearing aids that support it can join the same stream. The feature goes by different names depending on the phone. Google calls it Audio sharing on Pixel, while Samsung labels it Audio broadcast. I could choose between broadcasting media playing on the phone or using the phone’s microphone to broadcast my voice, and there was also an option to protect the broadcast with a password. Where to find it:
- Pixel 8 and later: Settings > Connected devices > Connection preferences > Audio sharing.
- Samsung Galaxy with One UI 8.5+: Settings > Connected devices > Audio Broadcast (with Listen and Share tabs).
- One UI 8.0 and below: Settings > Connections > Bluetooth > More options > Broadcast sound using Auracast It’s a pretty neat way for two or more people to listen to the same movie, playlist, or podcast without splitting a pair of earbuds. The hardware requirement is the main catch, since the receiving devices need Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast support, which leaves most older Bluetooth headphones out. Sound Notifications My phone can listen for sounds even when I’m not paying attention Sound Notifications may be the feature here I was least likely to discover accidentally because I rarely had a reason to wander through Android’s hearing-accessibility settings. Once enabled, Android’s Sound Notifications can warn you about important real-world sounds you might miss, including things such as a smoke alarm, doorbell, baby crying, or certain appliance sounds.
- Pixel: Settings > Accessibility > Sound Notifications
- Samsung Galaxy: Settings > Accessibility > Hearing enhancements > Sound notifications It was designed as an accessibility feature, but the practical uses go well beyond that. Headphones, loud music, another room, or plain distraction can all make important sounds easy to miss. Android can effectively keep one electronic ear open. App languages My phone can be bilingual one app at a time Changing Android’s system language always seemed like an unnecessarily big hammer when I only wanted one app in another language. Android 13 added a much cleaner option: per-app language preferences. Apps that support the feature can use one language while the rest of your phone stays untouched. Google Pixel puts the control under Settings > System > Languages & input > App languages, while Samsung uses Settings > General management > App languages. Samsung has supported the feature since Android 13 and One UI 5. The catch is that developers have to expose the languages their apps support, so not every installed app will appear. For anyone who speaks multiple languages, is learning one, or simply prefers a particular app’s terminology in another language, this is far better than repeatedly changing the entire phone. Android still has plenty of corners worth checking Using Android for years doesn’t mean you’ve seen everything it can do. Some of these features have been around for a while, while others depend on newer versions of Android, newer apps, or newer Bluetooth hardware. Either way, they were a good reminder that Settings is worth revisiting after a major Android update. The menu you skipped three phones ago may contain something genuinely useful now.