Hidden Android Setting Can Make Phones Feel Faster, Engadget Reports

The option is available on Android phones regardless of brand or price, Engadget reports, and has existed at least since Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It is found in the developer options menu, which is hidden by default.

To enable developer options, users navigate to Settings > About and look for Build Number, which may appear under a submenu such as Software Version on some models. Tapping the label seven times should produce a message saying "You are now a developer!" After returning to the main settings page, the Developer Options menu may appear directly; if not, users can go to System to find it, according to Engadget.

Inside developer options, Engadget cautions that users should not change settings unless they know what those settings do. The relevant controls are the animation scale settings under the Drawing section. Setting Window animation scale, Transition animation scale and Animator duration scale to 0.5x makes most animations play twice as fast.

Engadget says cutting animation speeds in half does not make the phone perform any better. However, the report's writer has used the trick for more than a decade and says it makes everything feel snappier. Unlocking the phone and launching an app feel faster, as does quickly switching between different apps. The writer says the lack of a similar option on iOS was one of the first things noticed after switching to an iPhone.

Animations also serve another purpose, according to the report: they mask brief loading times and make transitions between menus and screens feel smoother. Engadget notes that on some budget-oriented phones, halving animation speed can make the experience feel worse because apps and menus are not loading quickly enough to keep up.

Different Android skins can produce different results. Engadget says Google's Pixel UI has more drawn-out animations than others, so speeding them up can make a noticeable difference. OxygenOS on OnePlus devices has slightly faster animations by default, so users may not want to cut their duration in half. In the writer's experience, however, OnePlus flagship phones operate on a different level with the tweak enabled.

Users can also slow down system animations if they prefer to watch each transition play out. Engadget notes that turning off the Developer Options toggle resets the animation scale settings back to their default values.

Editor's Summary Engadget reports that Android users can halve system animation speeds through a hidden developer options setting, making phones feel snappier without improving actual performance. The trick works across brands but may feel worse on some budget phones, and results vary by Android skin. Turning off Developer Options resets the animation scales to default.