Android 7.0 Nougat Tip: Customize Quick Settings

Android 7.0 Nougat Tip: Customize Quick Settings

The ability to customize Quick Settings is among the most useful of the many changes you’ll notice when you pull down the notification shade in Android 7.0 Nougat. Here’s how it works.

First, a bit of background.

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Like other mobile OSes, Android lets you swipe down from the top of the screen to display notifications and key system settings and actions. On Android this display is called the notification shade, and it includes an expandable (and now configurable) area for Quick Settings plus a list of notifications (which are now bundled by app). I’ll be looking at the changes to Android 7.0 Nougat notifications soon; first, we’ll look at Quick Settings.

Note: Users coming from Windows 10 will note that the notification shade is the Android version of the Action Center. And that Quick Settings are the Android version of Quick Actions.

To best understand what’s changed, consider how Quick Settings looks on the previous version, Android 6.0 Marshmallow. When you start to swipe down from the top edge of the screen, a non-interactive view of the time and date, plus a few Quick Settings for connectivity, battery life, and so on, appears.

MQS1

If you tap this display or swipe it down further, the full Quick Settings appears, providing access to key system settings and actions like Brightness, Wi-Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth connectivity, Do Not Disturb, Airplane Mode, Auto Rotate, and more. You can also access the Settings app by tapping the Settings (gear) icon.

MQS2

Quick Settings has improved in Android 7.0 Nougat in a few key ways.

When you start to swipe down from the top edge of the screen, a view of the time and date, plus a few Quick Settings for connectivity, battery life, and so on, appears.

QS1

But now there are more Quick Settings displayed here, and each is interactive. If you tap the Wi-Fi icon, for example, Wi-Fi connectivity is toggled off; tap it again to toggle it on. If you tap the Cellular Data icon, a data usage sheet appears, so you can view your usage for the current billing period, toggle the connectivity, and access more settings.

cd

But if you swipe the initial Quick Settings view down further, the full Quick Settings appears, providing access to key system settings and actions, as before.

QS2

But now Quick Settings supports multiple pages—so you can swipe left to right to see more Quick Settings if you’re using more than 9—and there is an obvious EDIT link, which brings you to an Edit screen you can use to determine which Settings appear, and where.

EDIT

From here, you can drag and drop Quick Settings icons to create the custom Quick Settings display that works best for you. You can drag icons off the top area and to the bottom, meaning they will not appear in Quick Settings. And you can add icons for Quick Settings—like Hotspot, Invert Colors, Data Saver, Cast, and more—that do not appear by default. If you screw things up, just select Menu (“…”) and then Reset.

 

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