✓ How to activate the developer options in Android, and what advantages it has

• Learn to activate the development options on your mobile and discover what each of them is for.

If you have ever wanted to make any type of advanced modification to the software of your Android mobile, such as rooting your device or installing a ROM, or any other type of change that requires modifying some element of the operating system, you are probably already familiar with the options for developers or developer options.

As Google itself explains on the official Android page, developer settings are a hidden section within the System Settings app on Android, dedicated to app creators being able to configure certain system behaviors, which can help when developing and debugging applications.

However, over the years this settings menu has been receiving more and more options, some of them useful even for ordinary users, like you and me.  For this reason, today we have decided to create a guide in which we will explain step by step how to activate the settings for developers, and what advantages we can find by keeping this Android function active.

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How to enable developer options on your Android

The process to enable developer options is simple, and it doesn't matter what system version your device is running;  the steps to follow are basically the same in all versions of Android.  However, depending on the manufacturer of your device, the menu from which you can access your terminal information may be in a different section of the system options.  Be that as it may, in most terminals, these are the steps to follow:

• Open the Settings or Configuration application of your mobile.
• Go to the phone information section.
• Look for the section called build number.
• Press six times in a row on the build number, until a warning tells you that the developer options have been activated.

That's it.  However, keeping this option activated will not cause any kind of change in the operation of the system.  To access the functions for developers, you will have to return to the main menu of the Settings app, and go to the System section.  There, a new option will have appeared that was not available before, called Developer Options.

7 Advantages of Enabling Developer Options

Keep in mind that many of the functions included in this menu are intended to modify the behavior of the system, and therefore, once activated, they could cause abnormal operation of the device or the system.  For this reason, it is advisable to be careful, and not activate or deactivate those options whose usefulness we do not know.

That said, once inside the developer options menu, we can make use of functions that really bring advantages.  Some of them are the following:

• USB debugging: This option is intended for developers to be able to test their apps on their devices without having to fully install them.  However, thanks to it, it is also possible to carry out other processes such as updating our mobile manually, uninstalling bloatware, and many other advanced modifications.
• OEM unlock: once you have activated this option, you will be able to unlock the bootloader of your mobile.
• Running services: if you think that any of the apps installed on your mobile is working when it shouldn't, you can see if it really has a process or service running and act accordingly, either by forcing the app to close or uninstalling it.
• Demo Mode: Enabling this option will remove notification icons from the status bar and display coverage, battery, or Wi-Fi indicators in full, giving the interface a cleaner look.  It is useful when you want to take a screenshot without several notification icons appearing on the panel.
• Animation scale: A useful trick to speed up the operation of your mobile is to reduce the animation scale, from 1x --by default-- to a lower rate.  Thus, the movements of the interface will be shorter, and it will seem that the mobile works faster.
• Smallest width: If you think the elements on the screen appear too big, or too small, you can choose their exact size.  The higher the number entered, the smaller the content will appear.
• Force dark mode: Starting with Android 10, you can enable this option to make all apps appear in a dark theme, even if they aren't supported.

These are just some of the best development options that exist in Android, and that you can use to get more out of your mobile.  However, there are many more, and with each new version of Android others are introduced.  That's why we'll keep this list constantly updated to include the most interesting developer options available in the operating system.