7 settings you should change immediately

The OnePlus 11 isn’t a perfect phone. But its few compromises and reasonable price make it a fantastic value proposition among the top Android flagships. If you’re the proud owner of a OnePlus 11, change the OxygenOS settings to make app notifications more reliable, enhance your privacy, and do more with your phone. Here are all the settings you should change right away on your new OnePlus 11.

1 Save your notifications from going into the void

OnePlus’ smartphone software has evolved over the years, but one of the things that haven’t changed is how the phone optimizes apps in the background. Often, this leaves you with delayed and, in many cases, missed notifications. It’s necessary to keep certain critical apps running in the background, and there are a couple of ways to do that.

1. Go to
   Settings
   and select
   Battery
   .

2. Scroll down to
   More settings
   and select
   Optimize battery use
   .

3. Find the app you want to fix notifications for and select it.
4. On the pop-up window, select
   Don’t optimize
   .

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each app.

You can also allow background activity specifically for a few apps so that the phone knows it isn’t supposed to kill them.

1. Under the same
   Battery
   settings page, go to
   More settings
   .

2. Open
   App battery management
   .

3. Select the app and toggle on
   Allow background activity
   .

Finally, for your most important apps, say the one you use for medicine reminders, you can lock it in the recent apps screen. Here’s how:

1. Go to the
   recent apps page
   and find the app you want to lock.
2. Tap the
   vertical ellipses
   icon at the top.
3. Tap
   Lock
   .

2 Set the display resolution to QHD+

The OnePlus 11 has a beautiful (and massive) QHD+ display, but it’s set to the lower FHD+ resolution by default. But when you have the option, why not use the better resolution for sharper on-screen content? The best part is that you don’t have to worry about the battery life taking a hit. The OnePlus 11 is a battery champ, and you can get to the end of the day even with the display set to QHD+.

1. Go to
   Settings
   and then tap
   Display & brightness
   .
2. Scroll down and tap
   Screen resolution
   .

3. On the next page, tap
   Quad HD+
   .

3 Get rid of bloatware

Even though OxygenOS shares its codebase with ColorOS and Realme UI, it’s light on bloatware. The only unnecessary apps you will find preloaded are first-party tools, like OnePlus Community, Clone Phone, and Netflix. If you closed your Netflix account or transferred your data to your new OnePlus 11 using the Clone Phone app, you can uninstall or disable these apps to keep them out of sight.

You can use our handy guide to identify the bloatware, such as duplicates (there are two calculator apps from Google and OnePlus), and delete them from your OnePlus 11 with just a couple of taps.

4 Change app icons to themed icons

A visual perk of Android 13 is its themed icons for all apps (as long as the individual app developers support them). The OnePlus 11 comes preloaded with Android 13, and you might as well flick on themed icons to have the uniform, themed experience. Plus, the app icons will match your phone’s wallpaper on the homescreen and in the app drawer. This is how to enable them:

1. Long press on any empty space on the homescreen.
2. Select the
   Icons
   option from the bottom menu.
3. On the pop-up window, scroll down and turn on
   Match wallpaper colors
   .
4. Tap
   Apply
   .

5 Enhance your lock screen privacy

There are a lot of spying eyes around you, and leaving your personal information exposed on the lock screen may not be ideal for your privacy. If your full text messages show up on the lock screen, anyone can glance at your private chats without unlocking the phone. You can prevent that and allow the full text to appear only after you unlock the phone.

1. Go to
   Settings
   and then tap
   Notification & status bar
   .
2. Tap the
   Lock screen
   icon at the top.

3. Select
   Lock screen notifications
   .
4. Turn on
   Show app only
   to see only the app icon on the lock screen.

6 Enable some handy lock-screen gesture shortcuts

OxygenOS has had some handy lock screen gestures for years that let you quickly turn on the flashlight or open the camera with intuitive gestures. This means you can draw an “O” on the screen to open the camera to instantly capture the moment without having to wake the phone.

1. In the
   Settings
   app, go to
   Additional settings
   .

2. Go to
   Gestures & motions
   and select
   Screen-off gestures
   .

3. From the list, toggle on the lock screen gesture you want to enable.

Other than the two gestures to turn on the camera and the flashlight, you can double tap to lock and unlock the screen, which is handy when the phone is resting on a desk.

OnePlus offers additional gestures to interact with music playback and three customizable options to open a particular app or call someone directly.

7 Remove OnePlus Shelf

OnePlus Shelf replaced the Google Discover page, which you access by swiping right on the homepage. Over the years, OnePlus has made a ton of changes to Shelf, and it now opens when you swipe down — a gesture many of us rely on to pull down the notification shade on our tall-screened phones. The OnePlus 11 lets you switch back to opening the notification drawer when you swipe down anywhere on the homescreen.

1. On the homescreen, long press on any empty area.
2. From the bottom menu, click
   More
   .
3. Select
   Swipe down on Home screen
   .

4. From the pop-up menu, select
   Notification drawer
   .

Besides opening the notification drawer, you can switch to OnePlus’ Global Search, which brings together app, web, and file search in a single place. A similar swipe-down gesture exists on iPhones to open the search box, so if you’re switching from an iPhone to an Android, you’ll feel right at home with this.

Make the OnePlus 11 your own

OxygenOS may have changed from what it used to be until a couple of years ago, but it still holds its own. Over stock Android, the OnePlus 11 gets you a ton of customization features that come baked into the OS. From the first boot of the phone, you can personalize the features and settings to suit your taste and preferences, from how the app icons look to setting up handy gestures. As a complete package, OnePlus delivers a solid phone that checks a lot of boxes and comes with a fantastic price, which makes up for its minor limitations.

OnePlus 11

Although the design won’t be for everyone, the OnePlus 11 is the company’s best phone in years. It combines excellent specs, incredible battery life, and a competent camera system all for just $700. While some enthusiasts might miss out on the fast wireless charging from last year’s OnePlus 10 Pro — and OxygenOS 13 remains a shell of its former self — this is a big step in the right direction for the company.

Conclusion on 7 settings you should change immediately

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