[stbpro id=”info”]Also See: LG Nexus 5X Review[/stbpro]
Press power button twice to launch camera
There are moments where you have no time to unlock the phone, launch the camera app and then click a picture. Almost all the OEMs are featuring some or the other shortcuts in their devices to launch the camera instatly, so that the users do not miss a single shot. Nexus 5X also has an option to enable instant camera shortcut by double pressing the lock button.
You can enable this option in the Display settings under the Settings menu. Simply scroll to ‘Press power button twice for camera‘ option, then tap & switch the slider on.
Peek into your notifications
This option allows the users to have a glance at the notifications without opening it. To peek into your notifications, put your finger on the notification and slide it slightly downwards. This is a really useful feature and lets you avoid opening irrelevant notifications. You can enable or disable peeking for every app individually, which is enabled by default in this phone.
To enable or disable peeking go to Settings > Sound & Notification > App notifications > Select App > Allow peeking, then simply enable/ disable it.
Explore files and folders on storage
I have seen a lot of users struggling to browse through the files and folders in the internal storage, Nexus 5X does not offer a seperate app as File manager or something of that sort. many users cannot locate the option to locate the files on the phone. If you need to access the folders on storage, here is the path to reach them.
Open Settings > Storage & USB > Internal storage. Move at the bottom of the list where you will find ‘Explore’ option. From here you can browse the files on your internal storage.
Enable/ Disable battery saver
If you are wondering why am I mentioning this common feature, the reason is that some of the Nexus 5X users may not locate the battery saver option as it is not displayed right under the battery settings. You can enable or disable the Battery Saver at any point of time by tapping the ‘three horizontal dots‘ at the top right corner, which actually displays the extra options.
By default, the battery saver automatically turns on when the battery drops to 15%, but you can always change and set it to 5% by tapping ‘Turn on automatically’ in the Battery saver screen.
Put a message on lock screen
Nexus 5X has another cool feature called the Lock screen message, this feature is very basic and old, but it can be used for many purposes. It shows your text right under the date and time on the standby display when the device is locked. So, evertime you pick up your Nexus, you will find the same text displayed and also when you are on the lockscreen. You can see your text scrolling below time and date on the lockscreen.
This may sound very normal but let me tell you, it is a really useful thing to have on your phone, specially if you have memory issues. To set up the lock screen message go to Settings > Security > Lock screen message. You can write very long messeges in the text box, on standby display you will only see the first line but on the messege scrolls on the lock screen.
Google Photos Backup
Creating an online backup of your photos is pretty common in smartphones now, but I’m talking about this because Nexus 5X gives you the following options to manage your upload :
Select the folders you want to backup on your Google accountSelect the upload size which between High Quality and OriginalEnable/ disable- backup only while chargingEnable/ disable while roaming, and a few more basic controls.
To change controls go to Settings > Google > Google Photos Backup > Scroll down to Backup Settings.
Shortcut to change Sound profiles, set volume (Music, Alarm & Ringer) and Activate DND
Nexus 5X does not have a switch to change profiles but who needs one when you can use the volume rocker to do it. When you are not listening to music, watching a video or playing a game, the volume rocker can be used to:
Increase and decrease ringer volume- Simply press the upper key to increase and lower key to decrease the volume.Activate Vibrate Mode- When the ringer volume is lowest, press the lower volume key to enter the vibrate mode. Once you feel a short vibration, it means the ringer is silenced and vibration is turned on.Activate DND mode- While in Vibrate mode, press the lower volume key one more time to activate DND mode. There will be no sound or vibration in DND mode and only the Alarms will ring the phone.
To control volume for Ringer, Alarms and Music player just press the volume rocker when the screen is on. You will see a volume slider on the top of the screen, tap the arrow on the right end of the slider, which will display 3 seperate volume sliders- Ringer, Music Player & Alarm.
[stbpro id=”grey”]Also See: Nexus 5X Gaming & Battery Test[/stbpro]
Select multiple photos at one swipe
I am not sure if you know about this or not, but this feature of Nexus 5X has can save a lot of taps and time. You can select multiple photos just by swiping your finger over them. You don’t need to tap on each photo to select it and then choose your action. To select multiple photos in a flow, simply tap & hold on a single photo once it is selected, drag your finger over the other photos you want to select.
Bottom Line
There are a lot more features hidden inside the Nexus 5X, so the hunt is still on and we will keep you updated with lot more cool features from Nexus 5X and other smartphones. We try and discover the unnoticed but useful features of different smartphones and we expect you to help us with adding up some other features that we missed, please comment with your feedback and let us know if this was helpful.
