Remove App Shortcut from Home Screen
When your OnePlus home screen fills up with shortcuts you barely use, finding the apps you actually need takes longer every time. Deleting the wrong icon by accident or confusing 'Remove' with 'Uninstall' is a common worry, since both options can appear in the same long-press menu. Knowing which action just clears the shortcut and which one deletes the app entirely saves you from losing data you did not mean to remove.
Enable or Disable Google Location History
OnePlus phones automatically log your location and send it to Google to power personalized maps, recommendations and search results. If you want to check whether this feature is running in the background or shut it off completely, the setting sits inside your Google Account rather than a OnePlus-specific menu. Many users only discover it after noticing Google Maps knows exactly where they have been.
Restrict Notifications in Do Not Disturb Mode
When Do Not Disturb is active on your OnePlus phone, some notifications still light up the screen or buzz next to you. That happens because Restrict notifications defaults to letting partial alerts through instead of blocking them fully. You can set exactly how much a notification is allowed to interrupt you while the mode runs.
Move Contacts to Another Storage Location
If contacts on your OnePlus phone are split between internal storage and a Google Account, they stop syncing consistently across your devices. This matters most before a phone swap or when you want a shared contact list to update everywhere at once. Moving a contact keeps every stored detail intact while changing which account manages it.
Add App to Do Not Disturb Exceptions
If notifications from a specific app stay silent even though Do Not Disturb is active on your OnePlus, the app is missing from the exception list. This mostly affects messaging or call apps where you still want alerts to break through. The fix sits inside the notification settings of that single app, not in the general Do Not Disturb menu.
Enable Face Unlock
If your OnePlus phone only unlocks with a fingerprint or by entering a pattern, PIN, or password, Face Unlock stays inactive until you register your face separately. Without this step, the front camera has no biometric data to compare against when you pick up the phone. Setting it up once lets the lock screen recognize you automatically instead of asking for a code every time.
Allow App Installs from Unknown Sources
Trying to install an APK outside the Google Play Store and getting blocked on your OnePlus phone? Your browser or file manager needs explicit permission before it can install anything from outside the store. Without that permission enabled, Android refuses the installation as a security precaution.
Set Camera Aspect Ratio
If your photos come out square when you wanted a wide landscape shot, or a portrait leaves odd black bars, the camera aspect ratio on your OnePlus is probably set wrong for what you are shooting. The Camera app offers different formats depending on your phone screen ratio, and the wrong pick crops out parts of the scene or adds unwanted space around your subject. Switching between 4:3, Full and 1:1 changes exactly how much of the frame actually gets saved.
Enable or Disable Airplane Mode
Flight crews and many transit systems require you to fully disconnect your phone from every network before departure. Switching off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile data one by one takes too long and it is easy to forget one of them. Airplane mode on your OnePlus handles all three connections with a single switch.
Turn Camera Flash On, Off or Auto
If your OnePlus keeps firing the flash in a bright room or refuses to light up in the dark, the flash mode inside the Camera app is set wrong. The rear flash can run permanently on, stay off, or switch itself on only when the sensor detects low light. Getting the mode right saves battery and stops shots from turning out too dark or overexposed.
Rearrange Camera Modes
If your OnePlus camera swipe bar is cluttered with modes you never use, finding Portrait or Night mode quickly gets annoying. The order and selection of visible camera modes is not fixed and can be customized through the Custom modes settings. Modes you rarely need can be hidden, while your favorites move closer to the main shutter view.
Enable or Disable Emoji Suggestions
If Gboard keeps popping up an emoji next to a word while you type on your OnePlus, the emoji suggestion feature is active. Some people find this handy, others just want a clean suggestion bar without extra icons. The setting sits inside the keyboard text correction options, not the main keyboard layout menu.
Set Snooze Length
If the default snooze on your OnePlus alarm feels too short or drags on too long every morning, the timing isn't fixed the way it is on many other phones. The Clock app lets you set your own snooze duration, anywhere between 1 and 30 minutes, instead of sticking with a preset interval.
Set Mobile Data Warning Limit
If your OnePlus phone never tells you when you are close to your mobile data cap, the data warning notification is probably switched off or set too high. Without an early alert, you only notice the overage once your carrier already throttles or bills extra data. A properly set warning threshold gives you time to cut back before the actual limit is reached.
Enable or Disable Nearby Share
When Nearby Share does not show up during file transfers, or a nearby OnePlus phone stays invisible to friends, the setting is often switched off or blocked by disabled Bluetooth and location. Since Nearby Share can also spin up a temporary Wi-Fi hotspot, restrictive data or connectivity settings can silently stop transfers as well.
Auto-download MMS: Enable or Disable
MMS attachments like photos or videos download automatically as soon as a message arrives, even on a limited data plan. On a OnePlus phone with two SIM cards, this setting exists separately for each SIM and can quietly burn through mobile data while roaming. Turning it off gives you back control over when attachments actually load.
Zoom In and Out in the Camera App
If pinch-to-zoom feels shaky or you miss the shot while adjusting framing, the OnePlus camera app has a steadier way to control zoom. Swiping instead of pinching keeps the image stable and lets you fine-tune the zoom level right before you tap the shutter.
Enable or Disable Block Offensive Words in Gboard
If Gboard refuses to suggest a word you actually meant to type, or autocorrect keeps swapping it for something tamer, the Block offensive words filter is likely stepping in. On OnePlus phones this filter runs by default inside the keyboard's text correction settings and quietly screens out slang, profanity, and words it flags as inappropriate. That can get in the way when you're typing names, technical terms, or casual messages that just happen to trip the filter.
Turn Call Vibration On or Off
If your OnePlus phone buzzes every time someone calls even though you only want the ringtone, or the vibration stays off in a quiet room where you actually need it, the culprit is a separate vibration setting tied to Phone ringtone and vibration. Ringtone volume and vibration are controlled independently on OxygenOS, so muting one does not affect the other.
Mark All Messages as Read
If your Messages app on your OnePlus phone is cluttered with unread badges after a busy weekend, opening every single conversation just to clear the counter wastes time. OnePlus includes a shortcut that clears the unread marker on all conversations in one tap, without touching the content of any chat.
Rename a Home Screen Folder
Folders on your OnePlus home screen often keep the generic name that was assigned automatically when you created them, making it hard to tell them apart at a glance. Renaming them helps you group apps by category or keep the ones you use most together for faster access. The option sits directly on the folder itself, not buried in a settings menu.
Enable or Disable the Home Screen Assistant
Keep swiping right across your OnePlus home screens and you land on the Discover panel, packed with a Google feed, news topics and a search bar that reacts to Hey Google or typed input. If that panel opens by accident, eats battery in the background or just clutters your setup, the home screen assistant is the toggle behind it. Turning it off removes the whole panel, not just the search bar.
Allow or Deny Display Over Other Apps
If a chat bubble or profile picture from Facebook Messenger keeps floating over other apps on your OnePlus phone, an app is using the display over other apps permission. Some apps ask for this access right away, while others use it silently in the background. Knowing which apps hold this permission lets you decide which overlays you actually want on screen.
Block Pop-ups and Redirects in Chrome
If tapping a link on your OnePlus phone keeps throwing you into random app stores or shady offer pages, Chrome's pop-up and redirect protection is probably turned off or has an exception saved for that site. This usually happens after accidentally tapping 'Allow' on a permission prompt or landing on a page with an ad-heavy redirect chain. Blocking these interruptions again only takes one setting inside Chrome's site permissions.