Turning on developer mode on any device grants you massive power at great risk. On Android, the little things include changing the icons that appear in your status bar. The biggies? Changing out your phone or tablet’s firmware. Here’s what you need to know about Android’s developer mode and how to turn it on.
How do I turn on Developer Mode on Android?
This is probably the simplest thing to explain, so we’ll cover it first. To turn on developer mode for your Android device:
Why would I want to turn on Developer Mode in Android?
Developer mode grants you access to some of what we would call the 200- and 300-level features on your device.
What gets included in developer settings will vary depending on if your phone was made by Samsung, OnePlus, Google, or some other brand because Android device manufacturers have great latitude in deciding what features their users get access to easily, which ones require some hurdles to jump over, and which ones you can’t get to unless you actively decide to bash through the caution signs.
When you turn something on or off, there will always be performance and security trade-offs. There is no guarantee that if something goes wrong, you’ll be able to get your phone back to regular working order - even with a factory reset.
That said, there’s plenty to cruise through that we consider to be the smaller potatoes while still offering some quality-of-life improvement. Here’s a selection of these toggles and sub-settings as seen on a Google Pixel device running theAndroid 14Beta:
Some of the more important ones are:
Whatever you decide to do with Developer Mode on Android, remember to be careful; with great power comes great responsibility.
