You might have Wi-Fi switched off when you're away from home or the office. If so, Android can turn it back on for you when you get back within range of a network that you've previously logged on to. Head to Network and Internet, then Internet, and Network Preferences to find the Turn on Wi-Fi automatically switch.
If you're in a foreign country, on a limited data plan, or in an area with spotty cellular coverage, you can get your phone to use less data by tapping Network and Internet and Data Saver. This works in a number of different ways: Certain apps may check for updates less often, for example, while images on the web might not load until you tap on them.
Apps like Google Pay let you pay with your phone through the magic of NFC, which means anyone who picks up your handset could potentially make a payment with it. You can prevent that by making sure NFC payments require a screen unlock.
Android now comes with a special mode for when you're driving, which makes it easier to perform certain actions with voice commands, and suppresses other notifications. You can have this mode start up automatically when your phone connects to your car's Bluetooth stereo.
Apps often request permission to access certain data or parts of your device, like your contacts and your phone's location. To view—and if necessary edit—these permissions or limit access to only when you're using the app, open Apps and then select See all apps to choose a particular app.
Android keeps a record of your notifications, in case you swiped them away too quickly and need to get them back. You can turn on the feature and see recent notifications from your apps by selecting Notifications and then Notification History.
You don't want old apps you no longer use keeping hold of their permissions, which is why by default Android now pauses permissions on apps you haven't used in a while. To control this for individual apps, choose Apps, then See all apps, then pick an app and select Permissions and Pause app activity if unused.
Certain actions, like opening links or answering calls, need default apps associated with them. To control which apps are associated with which jobs, choose Apps and then Default Apps—you're then able to pick a type of app (like a web browser) and choose which one is used first. All the available apps matching that type will be listed on screen.
It can be tricky to tell just how much battery life you've got left on your phone by looking at the small icon in the status bar. To get a percentage reading up next to it, choose Battery and then turn on the Battery Percentage toggle switch.
You don't necessarily want sensitive or personal notifications popping up on your lock screen where anyone can read them. You can stop this from happening by choosing Notifications and disabling the Sensitive Notifications toggle switch.
You probably get enough notifications without all the silent ones. These are ones that maybe tell you the weather, or that there's traffic in your area, or that a podcast is downloading in the background. If you'd rather not have these appear on your phone and distract you, choose Notifications and enable Hide silent notifications in status bar.
Your lock screen protects your phone from unwelcome users, so ideally you want it to activate as quickly as possible once you set it down. You can alter this duration by opening up the Display and then choosing Screen Timeout from the list—you'll typically be able to select durations from a few seconds to a few minutes.
If you're running out of room on your phone, see which apps are taking up the most space by going to Storage and then Apps. The biggest apps in terms of storage space are shown at the top of the list. The figures shown include all of an app's files—so downloaded Spotify playlists and Netflix shows count as well as the actual Spotify and Netflix apps, for example.
It can be tricky to tell just how much battery life you've got left on your phone by looking at the small icon in the status bar. To get a percentage reading up next to it, choose Battery and then turn on the Battery Percentage toggle switch.
The ability to caption speech in videos—in real time—is available on a growing number of Android phones, and it's useful even if you're not hearing impaired. You can find the option by tapping Sound and Vibration and then Live Caption. Captions generated by Google's AI processing will then appear automatically whenever speech is detected, whether it's in a video on social media or on a video call.
