Stopwatch: Start, Pause and Lap Timer
Trying to time a workout or a recipe on your OnePlus phone but the stopwatch buttons seem to do nothing when you tap them? The Clock app bundles a stopwatch with lap timing, but Start, Lap, Pause and Reset only respond in a fixed order. Tap them out of sequence and the stopwatch either freezes on the current time or the lap list stays empty.
Set Up Bedtime Mode
If your OnePlus screen stays in full color and notifications keep buzzing right before you fall asleep, the built-in bedtime routine probably isn't active yet. Without a schedule, the phone never dims its colors or silences alerts on its own, so late-night scrolling gets no visual cue to stop. Bedtime mode ties grayscale and silence to a fixed time window or to your charging habit, so it works without you touching a single toggle each night.
Add a Contact Shortcut to the Home Screen
Digging through the Contacts app every time you want to reach the same person wastes time, especially if that contact is not one of your recent calls. On OnePlus phones, a home screen shortcut places that contact right next to your apps, one tap away. Here is what the Add to Home screen option actually does and when it is worth setting up.
Show or Hide the Specs Watermark in Photos
Photos from your OnePlus camera sometimes carry a small text stamp in the lower left corner naming the device model and camera technology. If you want a clean image without that branding, or you want it back for sharing, the toggle sits inside the camera app itself. Not knowing where to look often means people just live with photos they did not choose the look of.
Stop Battery Saver Turning Off After Charging
If Battery Saver on your OnePlus phone switches off by itself once charging passes roughly 90%, the „Turn off when fully charged“ option is behind it. That's inconvenient if you want power saving to stay active no matter how full the battery is.
Silence Alarms After a Set Time
If your OnePlus alarm keeps blaring long after you have already woken up, it can disturb the rest of the household or even the neighbors through thin walls. The Clock app lets you set a fixed duration after which the alarm stops on its own instead of ringing indefinitely. Without this limit, an unattended alarm just keeps sounding until someone dismisses it by hand.
Enable or Disable UltraShot HDR
Photos taken on your OnePlus phone sometimes come out with blown-out skies or crushed shadows, and UltraShot HDR is the setting responsible for balancing those extremes. When it is switched on, the camera captures several exposures and blends them into one shot, which can make some scenes look overprocessed or slow down capture speed. Turning it off gives you a single, faster exposure at the cost of that extra brightness detail.
Add App to Data Saver Exception List
When Data Saver is active on your OnePlus phone, background data gets blocked for most apps. WhatsApp and other messengers can then miss incoming messages until you open them manually. Adding an app to the unrestricted data list keeps it connected even while data saving stays on.
Record a Video with the Camera App
Switching from photo to video mode on your OnePlus camera looks simple, but many people miss the pause control that sits right next to the shutter button once recording starts. Without knowing where it is, you risk stopping a clip too early or losing a moment you cannot repeat. The video toolbar behaves differently from photo mode, and that catches people off guard.
Enable or Disable USB Tethering
If your laptop or PC shows no internet connection after plugging in the USB cable, USB tethering on your OnePlus is probably still switched off or fighting with another active connection. Some OxygenOS versions also pop up a prompt asking which network connection to share, and picking the wrong one leaves the computer offline. This is different from a broken cable or driver issue, since the phone controls the tethering toggle itself.
Enable or Disable Screen Rotation
When you tilt your OnePlus sideways, the whole screen content flips with it, which helps when you are browsing a website or watching a video in landscape. The same behavior gets in the way when a photo, a game, or a fixed app layout rotates on its own at the wrong moment. If Auto-rotate keeps flipping your display unexpectedly, or refuses to rotate when you actually want it to, the setting controlling this behavior lives in the display options.
Enable or Disable Location Data in Photos and Videos
If your photos and videos do not show where they were taken in the gallery app, the camera is not tagging them with location data. This can happen after a system update or a fresh camera app install, when location tagging quietly resets to off. Turning geotagging back on lets you see the exact spot of every shot later, which is useful for travel photos or documenting a job site.
Enable Parallel Apps for Dual Messenger Accounts
Running two WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook or Instagram accounts on one OnePlus phone usually fails because the app only supports a single login at a time. OxygenOS solves this with a built-in cloning feature that creates a separate, independent copy of the app. Without it, you are stuck switching accounts manually every time you need the other profile.
Import Contacts from SIM or VCF File
Contacts stored only on a SIM card or in a .vcf backup file stay invisible to your OnePlus phone until you actively pull them into the Contacts app. That gap shows up right after switching SIM cards or setting up a new phone, when calls and messages suddenly miss names you know exist. Where you save the imported data - device storage or your Google account - also decides whether those contacts survive a factory reset or a phone swap.
Remove the Google Search Bar from the Home Screen
After setting up a OnePlus phone, the Google search bar sits fixed at the top of the home screen and takes up space you might want for apps or widgets. It behaves like a widget rather than a system element, so it can be taken off without touching any search functions on the phone. If it keeps coming back after a restart, a launcher setting is usually the reason.
Enable or Disable Large Mouse Pointer
Connecting a mouse via USB or Bluetooth to your OnePlus phone often leaves the pointer too small to track on a touchscreen-sized display. This setting controls how large the cursor appears when you navigate with an external mouse instead of your finger.
Change Default Apps
If tapping a link or asking for voice assistance keeps opening the wrong app on your OnePlus phone, a default app assignment is pinned to a tool you no longer want. This happens after installing a new browser, messaging app or voice assistant that never took over the role automatically. The system keeps using the old default until you switch it manually.
Show Device Certification Labels
Looking for the FCC ID or HAC rating on your OnePlus phone but cannot find a physical sticker anywhere on the device? OnePlus stores these regulatory certifications digitally instead of printing them on the back cover. Which labels appear depends on your exact device model and sales region.
Edit Quick Responses in the Phone App
Rejecting a call with a text reply on your OnePlus phone often sends a generic message like 'I will call you back later' that does not fit the situation. The Phone app stores a fixed set of quick responses that rarely match how you actually communicate. Until you edit them, every caller you decline gets the same default text.
Rename SIM Card
When both SIM slots run cards from the same mobile carrier, the phone shows an identical label for each and calls or data usage become hard to tell apart. OxygenOS displays this carrier name by default instead of a custom label. Renaming each SIM card fixes the mix-up without needing to swap slots or restart the phone.
Delete Access Point Name (APN)
A wrong or outdated APN entry on your OnePlus phone can block mobile data or MMS even though your SIM card works fine elsewhere. This often happens after switching providers, since the old carrier's APN stays saved and OxygenOS keeps using it by default. Removing the leftover entry clears the conflict without touching your other network settings.
Add a New Home Screen Page
When every app and folder sits crammed onto one home screen, finding a single icon turns into a scroll-and-squint exercise. OnePlus phones let you spread apps across separate pages instead of piling everything onto one screen. This helps when you want a dedicated page just for messaging apps, games, or work tools.
Show Detailed Battery Usage
If your OnePlus battery screen only lists a few apps since you unplugged the charger, you are not seeing the full picture of what drained your battery. Oxygen OS keeps a more detailed breakdown that covers every app and background process since your last full charge, but it is tucked away from the main battery screen.
Enable or Disable Speak Passwords in TalkBack
If TalkBack reads your password out loud while you type it on your OnePlus, anyone standing nearby can hear it, from a bus seat to a shared office. This happens because the Speak passwords option makes TalkBack announce each character as confirmation for people who cannot see the screen. Depending on where and how you use your phone, you may want this feature active or completely switched off.