Android has had a built-in Battery Saver mode for years now. If your phone is about to run out of battery, then you can activate it to keep the device running for a few extra hours. Battery Saver disables quite a few power-hungry features and tweaks a bunch of settings to extend the battery life. While it’s quite useful as is for most people, some people may want to tweak it so it doesn’t turn certain settings off or make it even more aggressive at saving battery. If that describes you, then here’s a tutorial on how to customize Android’s battery saver mode.
Before we begin, we need to explain what Battery Saver mode actually does. According to a Google support page, here’s what Battery Saver limits on a Pixel phone:
What Battery Saver limits
Apps refresh their content, like email or news, only when you open the app.
Location services stop when your screen is off.
Apps don’t run in the background, unless you turn off battery optimization.
Your phone doesn’t listen for “Ok Google” and can’t continue a conversation. Instead, each time, tap Google Assistant .
Dark Theme turns on.
Your notifications may be delayed.
“Always show time and info” turns off.
Pixel phones with Active Edge won’t respond to a squeeze.
On Pixel 3, Pixel 4, and later Pixel phones, car crash detection turns off.
On Pixel 4 phones, Motion Sense turns off.
On Pixel 4 and later Pixel phones, smooth display turns off.
Pixel phones with 5G fall back to 4G service.
(Exclusive to Google’s Pixel 3 and later is an even more powerful Extreme Battery Saver Mode, but seeing as this is a Pixel-exclusive feature, we won’t be talking about it any further.)
The list shown above is actually incomplete: Battery Saver mode on Android phones actually does more than what Google says on the support page. In fact, Battery Saver also disables things like app launch boost, vibrations, and animations, and it also limits the maximum brightness of the panel. Since Android’s battery saver mode is open source and can be controlled through the command-line interface for the Settings tables, it’s possible to tweak battery saver mode to make it more or less aggressive in what it disables.
Follow this guide to set up ADB on your PC or read this post to learn how to set up a local ADB shell.
Once you have ADB up and running, open a command prompt or terminal window and run the following command in shell:
settings put global battery_saver_constants "advertise_is_enabled=BOOLEAN,datasaver_disabled=BOOLEAN,enable_night_mode=BOOLEAN,launch_boost_disabled=BOOLEAN,vibration_disabled=BOOLEAN,animation_disabled=BOOLEAN,soundtrigger_disabled=BOOLEAN,fullbackup_deferred=BOOLEAN,keyvaluebackup_deferred=BOOLEAN,firewall_disabled=BOOLEAN,gps_mode=INTEGER,adjust_brightness_disabled=BOOLEAN,adjust_brightness_factor=FLOAT,force_all_apps_standby=BOOLEAN,force_background_check=BOOLEAN,optional_sensors_disabled=BOOLEAN,aod_disabled=BOOLEAN,quick_doze_enabled=BOOLEAN"
where BOOLEAN is either true or false, INTEGER is a whole number, and FLOAT is a decimal number.
If you want to know what the parameters under battery saver mode are currently set to, you can run the following ADB shell:
dumpsys power | grep -A 128 "Battery saver policy"
This will show you the current battery saver policy and all the parameter values. Alternatively, you can check the output of:
settings get global battery_saver_constants
…however, this won’t populate until after you’ve made changes to this Settings value at least once.
If you want to revert battery saver mode back to its default parameters, then you can run either:
settings delete global battery_saver_constants
or
settings put global battery_saver_constants "advertise_is_enabled=true,datasaver_disabled=true,enable_night_mode=true,launch_boost_disabled=true,vibration_disabled=true,animation_disabled=false,soundtrigger_disabled=true,fullbackup_deferred=true,keyvaluebackup_deferred=true,firewall_disabled=true,gps_mode=2,adjust_brightness_disabled=true,adjust_brightness_factor=0.5,force_all_apps_standby=true,force_background_check=true,optional_sensors_disabled=true,aod_disabled=true,quick_doze_enabled=true"
Since we last covered how to tweak Android’s built-in battery saver mode through the command line, a developer has come up with an app that provides a GUI to change each of these parameters. If you don’t want to manually run shell commands and/or look through AOSP to find out exactly what each parameter does, then read on.
Method 2 – Buoy app
XDA Recognized Developer tytydraco, the developer of the LADB app we covered the other day, is back with another app called Buoy. It’s described as an “extension to the built in Android Battery Saver”, and what it does is exposes Android’s hidden parameters to customize the behavior of the battery saver mode. The app lets you toggle the following:
Advertising to other apps that low power mode is enabled
Android’s data saver for metered WiFi or mobile data connections
The built-in dark mode
Launch boost to accelerate app starts
Vibration
Showing window and activity animations
Allowing apps to use the SoundTrigger HAL
Deferring full device backups for later
Deferring app setting backups for later
Using the built-in web firewall to protect against possibly malicious sites
Changing the location access mode restrictions for apps
Reducing the max brightness of the panel
Forcing all apps into standby mode
Forcing all apps to not check data in the background
Disabling unnecessary sensors
Using the Always-On-Display
Putting the device into deep sleep as soon as the screen turns off
It also lets you toggle “sticky” low power mode, a feature added in Android 9 Pie that lets battery saver mode automatically re-enable itself when the device is unplugged from power or rebooted.
In order to use Buoy, you’ll need an Android device running Android 8.0 Oreo or later, though the available parameters will differ depending on the Android version. Also, you’ll have to grant the app the WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS permission or root access for it to change the value of Settings.Global.battery_saver_constants. Once again, I’ll refer you to our article on how to set up ADB or tytydraco’s LADB app so you can do that.
If you install the app and make any changes, be aware that the changes won’t automatically revert when you uninstall the app. You’ll have to either hit the “reset” button in Buoy or send one of the commands mentioned in step 4 from before in order to revert battery saver mode’s parameters back to default.
Buoy costs $0.99 on Google Play in the U.S., but it’s also open source so you can compile it yourself if you’re so inclined. Alternatively, you can just set the battery saver mode parameters manually as I previously mentioned. If you want to make things easier and support the developer, then you can buy the app from the Play Store. If you have any questions or feedback, check out the developer’s thread on the XDA forums linked below.
The Spanish government recently mandated that products will have to be sold in the country with three years of warranty. This ruling extends the duration of the warranty on most products — including electronics — from the existing period of two years. The regulation also applies to smartphones and should enforce a higher manufacturing quality, putting markets like the US at a disadvantage where you get only one year of warranty on most products. A longer warranty for your smartphone certainly has its advantages, but is that something you care about?
Spain’s new regulation also extends the choice between repair and replacement to the consumer should a product fail to match the quality endorsed by the company. Overall, this should compel companies to ensure better quality products so they continue to work as intended for a longer period.
Besides Spain, other regions also offer similar protections to consumers. Companies that sell in the European Union, for instance, are obligated to offer at least a two-year guarantee of compliance. Some countries have their own consumer protection laws that extend the EU’s two-year ruling. Sweden, for example, lets you claim a guarantee in three years of purchase whereas Iceland and Norway extend this to five years. In the UK, you can claim a warranty under the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA) even up to six years after the purchase in most conditions.
A longer warranty might sometimes mean that manufacturers often recover these costs by pricing the product higher in these regions. But, a three-year or even a two-year warranty extends more assurance over the single year the users get in the US or other regions like India. This also goes hand-in-hand with companies’ efforts to make their devices last longer via software updates.
How long is the standard warranty period in your region? Would you also prefer a longer warranty while buying a product? Let us know in the comments below!
One of the biggest attractions of Microsoft’s new consoles was the ability to finally have fast gameplay at 120-frame per second at up to 4K resolution. The Xbox Series X and Series S also got an update back in February where the FPS Boost feature was introduced, which additionally enabled older-gen Xbox games to run at comparatively faster frame rates going up to 120fps.
But what exactly is the benefit of having 120fps gameplay? Older Xbox consoles were restricted to 30 or 60fps with some exceptions on the last-gen Xbox One X. The new Xbox Series X and Series S pack powerful hardware that is capable of delivering such high frame rates going up to 4K resolution on certain supported games. Having a higher refresh rate ensures a smoother experience with faster response time, which is absolutely essential for competitive games. At the same time, it requires a lot of power to deliver double the amount of frame rates when compared to 60fps. Much like the higher refresh rate on smartphones, you need to experience games at a higher fps to appreciate the hype behind it.
You also need to understand the difference between 120fps and 120Hz. It is easy to get confused between the two but simply put, hertz (Hz) refers to the number of times your display refreshes per second, while frames per second (fps) refers to the number of image frames generated by the console. Unlike gaming monitors that are available for anything from 144Hz to 360Hz, TVs are mostly limited to 60Hz. To experience the full potential of 120fps on the Xbox Series X or Series S, you need to make sure that your TV or monitor should offer at least a 120Hz refresh rate. Depending on the display resolution, you also need to make sure that your TV or monitor has an HDMI 2.0 or the newer HDMI 2.1 port which is necessary for 4K 120Hz gameplay.
Now we have clarified all that, let’s take a look at all of the games for the Xbox Series X and Series S capable of running at 120 frames per second:
Battlefield 1
Released in 2016, Battlefield 1 is an award-winning first-person shooter by Electronic Arts and Dice, which is inspired by historical events during the period of World War 1. The game supports 120fps, but is only available on the Xbox Series X via the FPS Boost feature.
The sequel to 2011’s Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4 is set six years after the events of its prequel. The single-player campaign sees American squad Tombstone – consisting of Dunn, Sergeant Recker, Irish, and Pac – attempt to escape from Azerbaijan with vital intelligence about a potential military uprising in China. Microsoft recently confirmed that the game will support 120fps on the Xbox Series X via the FPS Boost feature.
The latest title in the Battlefield series, Battlefield V is based on World War II and a thematic continuation of the World War 1-based game Battlefield 1. The first-person shooter includes a single-player campaign, several multiplayer modes as well as a battle royale mode called ‘Firestorm.’ The game supports 120fps only on the Xbox Series X.
Borderlands 3 is an action role-playing first-person shooter game that was released in 2019 as a sequel to Borderlands 2, and the fourth entry in the main Borderlands series. Developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games, you can enjoy the game in 120fps at 1080p resolution only on the Xbox Series X at the moment.
The original shooter-looter returns, packing bazillions of guns and a mayhem-fueled adventure! Blast through new worlds and enemies as one of four new Vault Hunters.
Another free-to-play battle royale game, Call of Duty: Warzone is a part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, although you do not need to purchase either of them. You can enjoy the game with 120fps going up to 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X and up to 1080p resolution on the Series S.
The latest title under the Call of Duty franchise COD: Black Ops Cold War serves as the sixth installment in the Black Ops series, and the seventeenth installment in the overall Call of Duty series. The campaign is set during the early 1980s of the Cold War, chronologically between Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops II (2012). It is available with 120fps at 1200p resolution on the Xbox Series X, but not on the Series S.
CrossCode was originally released as a crowdfunding project on Indiegogo and the retro-inspired 2D action role-playing game is available on almost all platforms including the Xbox Series X and Series S. That game can be played at 120fps in 4K resolution on both consoles.
Destiny 2, also known as Destiny 2: New Light, is a first-person shooter game that incorporates role-playing and massively multiplayer online game (MMO) elements. Published by Activision, the game supports 120fps in 4K resolution only on the Xbox Series X.
From the makers of the acclaimed hit game Destiny, comes the much-anticipated action shooter sequel that takes you on an epic journey across the solar system
An expanded version of the original, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition was released exclusively for the Xbox Series X and Series S and the Sony PS5. It includes the addition of Vergil as a playable character which is available as paid DLC for players on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. You can enjoy a smooth 120fps experience only on the Xbox Series X though, and limited to 1080p resolution.
Several years after the order of the sword incident, a new demonic threat has invaded our world. It's up to the legendary Devil hunters Dante and Nero to stop it, with the newcomer V joining forces with them.
Dirt 5 is the fourteenth game in the popular Colin McRae Rally series which focuses on off-road racing. This is one of the few racing games that is now available with 120fps on both the Xbox Series X at 1440p and Series S at 1080p resolutions. Notably, this was the last game released by Codemasters as an independent studio before was acquired by Electronic Arts in February 2021.
Whilst respecting the heritage and retaining the DNA of the franchise, DIRT 5 writes a new chapter in the legacy of DIRT - bolder and braver than ever before.
The highly popular free-to-play online game Fortnite is the most popular battle royale game and is now available with up to 120fps on the new consoles. It is optimized for the Xbox Series X to run at 1440p and Series S at 1080p if you want to take advantage of the high frame rates. Currently, Season 6 of Chapter 2 is underway and is expected to stick around till June of 2021.
The sixth installment of the Gears of War series, Gears V takes place months after the events of Gears of War 4 and focuses on Kait Diaz, an Outsider who is descended from Myrrah, Queen of the Locust Horde. The third-person shooter game is published by Xbox Game Studios, and can be experienced in 120fps at 4K on the Xbox Series X and 1080p on the Xbox Series S.
A compilation of games from the Halo series that includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (an Xbox 360 updated version of Halo: Combat Evolved), Halo 2: Anniversary (an Xbox One updated version of Halo 2), Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4. The enhanced version was released for the Xbox Series X|S in November 2020 and is available with support for 120fps in 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X and 1080p on the Series S.
The complete story honoring the iconic hero and his epic journey, the Master Chief's entire story is brought together. The pack includes Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo 4.
Jydge is a twin-stick shooter game set in the dystopic, cyberpunk city of Edenbyrg. You get to play as “JYDGE” -a law enforcer who is tasked with eliminating enemies and rescuing hostages across twenty different levels. The game is played from a tilted top-down perspective and features destructible environments that enable players to breach a room by shooting down a wall. The game currently supports 120fps at 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X.
JYDGE is a lawful but awful roguehate top-down shooter where you get to build your own cybernetic JYDGE and eradicate crime in the never-sleeping megacity of Edenbyrg.
This is a unique arcade-style single button game that can be mastered by anticipating how boulders roll, bounce, and launch from explosions. Developed and published by 10tons Ltd, there are over 160 levels to test your skills. The game supports 120fps on the Xbox Series X at 4K resolution.
Minecraft Dungeons is a spin-off of the original developed by Mojang Studios and Double Eleven. Unlike Minecraft, it doesn’t feature an open world, neither does it involve mining or building, instead it is a hack and slash-styled dungeon crawler, where players explore dungeons filled with randomly-generated monsters and also deal with traps, puzzles, bosses, and finding treasure. It supports 120fps in 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X.
Brave the dungeons alone, or team up with friends! Up to four players can battle together through action-packed, treasure-stuffed, wildly varied levels—all in an epic quest to save the villagers and take down the evil Arch-Illager!
The 3D platform game developed by Playful Studios and published by Microsoft Studios, New Super Lucky’s Tale is an enhanced version of Super Lucky’s Tale from 2017 and is similar to popular 90s gaming titles such as Banjo-Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot, and Super Mario 64. The game is said to support 120fps on both the Xbox Series X and Series S, but there is no confirmation on the resolution.
New Super Lucky's Tale is a platform game in which players control Lucky as he travels across many different worlds contained within an artifact known as the Book of Ages.
Focusing on exploration, collecting items and upgrades, and backtracking to previously inaccessible areas, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an exciting 2D platform game. Players get to control Ori, a white guardian spirit that can jump, climb, glide, and swim between various platforms, to solve intricate puzzles. You can enjoy the game in smooth 120fps in 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X and 1080p on the Series S.
Overwatch will officially be five years old in May, becoming one of the most successful online first-person team-based shooters. Each player gets to select from a roster of characters, called “heroes” each having a unique ability. Teams need to work together to complete certain objectives on a map within a limited period of time. The best part about Overwatch is that new characters, maps, and newly added game modes post-release are all free of charge, with the only additional cost to players being optional loot boxes to purchase cosmetic items. It officially supports 120fps on the Xbox Series X at 1440p resolution and Series S at 1080p resolution.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is an online tactical shooter game that focuses on environmental destruction and cooperation between players. You get to be either an attacker or a defender in different gameplay modes such as rescuing a hostage, defusing a bomb, and taking control of an objective within a room. There is no solo campaign but there are a series of offline missions called, “situations” that you can enjoy. The game supports 120fps in 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X and 1080p on the Series S.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege features an ever-expanding experience with limitless opportunities to perfect your strategy and help lead your team to victory.
A fun and fast-paced game of soccer, but played with rocket-powered cars. As simple as it sounds, Rocket League has up to eight players per team that can use these cars to hit a ball into their opponent’s goal and score points. The team with the most goals after the stipulated time wins. It offers single-player and multiplayer modes that can be played both locally and online, including cross-platform play between all versions. Rocket League supports 120fps at a slightly weird resolution of 1512p resolution on the Xbox Series X and 756p on the Series S.
Rogue Company is another online competitive character-based shooter. It features objective-based game modes and various maps. Each match consists of multiple rounds, where teams skydive from an aircraft to the map below at the beginning of each round to compete against each other in various objectives. Players get to use the money earned from completing tasks and eliminating players in the previous rounds to buy and upgrade weapons, equipment, and others perks. The game supports 120fps at 4K resolution on the Xbox Series X and 1440p resolution on the Series S.
Samurai Shodown takes inspiration from the King of Fighter series of action fighting games. The game has been around since 1993 with the stories taking place in 18th-century Japan. The newest one in the franchise was launched in 2019 which is available on major platforms, including the Xbox Series X and Series S. The game was recently updated to support 120fps but there is no mention of the actual resolution.
Faithfully reproducing the game mechanics and atmosphere that contributed to the success of the series, Samurai Showdown includes a revolutionary feature that learns players' Game actions and patterns in order to create cpu-controlled “Ghost” characters.
Sea of Thieves is a first-person multiplayer action-adventure game where you get to play the role of a pirate who completes voyages from different trading companies in order to become the ultimate pirate legend. Players get to cooperate with each other to explore an open world via a pirate ship and the game is described as a “shared-world adventure game.” The game currently supports 120fps at 1080p resolution only on the Xbox Series X.
Star Wars Squadrons is a space combat game developed by Motive Studios and published by Electronic Arts. You get to enter and take control of starfighters from either the Galactic Empire or the New Republic navy. The gameplay involves controlling the movement of power between the ship’s functions of weaponry, shields, and engines to defeat your opponents in combat. The game supports 120fps gameplay on the Xbox Series X at 4K resolution and 1440p resolution on the Xbox Series S.
The third game in the Superhot franchise, Mind Control Delete includes more story and signature gameplay that you can explore. It is a very intense game where you need to shoot, punch, slice, and explode your way through challenging encounters packed in unique polygonal style graphics. The game runs in 4K at 120fps on the Xbox Series X and 1440p on the Xbox Series S.
The Falconeer is an aerial combat game set in a pirate fantasy backdrop named the Great Ursee. The third-person arcade flight game lets you pilot a massive warbird where you need to shoot down rival enemies while dodging hostile attacks. Players need to manage the warbird’s stamina while performing various moves and maneuvers. The game supports 120fps on the Xbox Series X at 1800p and Xbox Series S at 1080p.
Explore and fly over the Great Ursee, an ancient place filled with beautifully detailed locations to find and explore, not only above the clouds, but also below the waves.
The popular Titanfall series is a first-person shooter where players control “Pilots” and their mech-style Titans, and fight in six-on-six matches set in the war-torn outer space colonies of the Frontier. The game mainly focused on a multiplayer experience with no real single-player campaign included. Instead, there were single-player missions included that served as a way for the player to learn the mechanics of the game. It supports 120fps only on the Xbox Series X, via FPS Boost.
In Titanfall the advanced warfare of tomorrow gives you the freedom to fight your way as both elite assault Pilot and agile, heavily armored 24’ tall Titans.
Following up from the original, Titanfall 2 was a critically acclaimed gaming title from EA and introduced a single-player story campaign. The gameplay is split between commanding the Titan (BT-7274) and controlling the Pilot. It features a linear story, but levels offer players multiple paths to explore. The game is available with support for 120fps on both Xbox Series X and Series S via FPS Boost.
Pilot and Titan unite as never before in Respawn Entertainment’s highly anticipated Titanfall 2. Experience a single player campaign that explores the unique bond between man and machine.
The Touryst is an action-adventure puzzle game developed and published by Shin’en Multimedia that made its debut in 2019. An enhanced version of the game was launched for the new Xbox consoles in 2020 bringing support for 120fps available on both the Series X and Series S.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 was launched in 2020 by developer Vicarious Visions and publisher Activision. It is a remaster of the first two games in the Tony Hawk’s series: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (1999) and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (2000) which were originally developed by Neversoft. It is also the first major game in the series since Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 (2015). It is an arcade-style game, meaning the goal of the game is to achieve a high score or collect certain objects. The game supports 120fps at up to 1440p on the Series X.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater & Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 are rebuilt from the ground up in incredible HD and you get access to pro skaters, levels and tricks are back and fully-remastered, plus more.
WRC 9, also known as WRC 9 FIA World Rally Championship, is the official racing video game of the 2020 World Rally Championship. It offers 14 different locations (reflecting the 2020 season as it was originally intended to be run) including all three returning rallies, Safari Rally, Rally New Zealand, and Rally Japan, with up to fifty official crews from WRC, WRC-2, WRC-3, and J-WRC available for the player to choose. You can enable the 120Hz performance mode on the game, currently only available on the Xbox Series X.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a third-person shooter game that is set in the year 1946, after the events of Zombie Army Trilogy, one year after Adolf Hitler was defeated by the Resistance and banished to hell. The story begins in Milan, where the players have to battle against invading hordes of the dead attacking safe houses, only to learn that the dead are beginning to show some form of intelligence, enough to use weapons such as handguns and SMGs, but not as competent as living humans. The game supports 120fps on the Xbox Series X at 1080p resolution.
These are new games that have not released yet but will release with 120fps gameplay support right out of the box, or are existing games that have been promised a 120fps gameplay mode for the near future.
Apex Legends
One of the top battle royale games, Apex Legends is developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Based on the popular Titanfall franchise I am currently hooked on the game. We are yet to get a confirmation as to when 120fps will be released for the Xbox Series X and Series S, but Respawn recently said in an AMA session on Reddit that “120fps is one of our goals as we continue to look at next-gen features and balance between what we think is best for the overall player experience for NG, we’re keeping this in mind.”
ExoMecha is an upcoming free-to-play online competitive first-person shooter from developer and publisher TwistedRed. The game looks like a cross between Battlefield, Titanfall, and Crysis that takes place on a planet called Omecha. The game is set to release in Q3/Q4 2021 and will be available on the Xbox Series X with 120fps at 4K resolution.
Halo Infinite
The newest and upcoming addition to the Halo universes, Halo Infinite will pick up the story of the Master Chief, following Halo 5: Guardians. The first-person shooter game developed by 343 Industries and published by Xbox Game Studios, is expected to arrive by late 2021 with support for 120fps on the Xbox Series X.
Metal: Hellsinger is an upcoming rhythm-based first-person shooter that blends music and demon-slaying. The ability to shoot on the beat enhances your gameplay experience and the more in sync you are with the rhythm, the more intense the music will become and the more destruction you will cause. You will be able to experience the game in 120fps at 1080p resolution on the Xbox Series X.
Second Extinction
Second Extinction is an upcoming 3 player cooperative shooter, where the main aim is to wipe out mutated dinosaurs that have taken over the planet. Apart from teamwork, players need to use a unique combination of weapons, abilities, and skills to take on a vast number of enemies. It is confirmed to support 120fps gameplay only on the Xbox Series X.
It is expected that more games will be added to the list especially with FPS Boost now available to all game developers. During the rollout of the feature, Microsoft said that it worked closely with developers to enhance the experience while maintaining the game’s original intent. As of now, only a handful of older games have taken a jump from 30fps to 60fps, but we are expecting games to go up to 120fps later this year. Make sure you keep an eye on this list as we will be updating it periodically and also check out our list of the best Xbox games.
If you haven’t been able to get your hands on either of the new consoles, make sure you check out our restocks guide. Also, we checked out the smaller Xbox Series S late last year and found it pretty interesting, especially if one is looking for new gaming hardware at a cheap price point.
The Android Debug Bridge, or ADB for short, is a nifty development tool to interface with your phone for debugging and testing. Through ADB, developers can access Android’s built-in Linux command line shell with greater privileges than user-installed apps. This gives developers the ability to install or uninstall apps, grant or deny permissions, change system settings values, and do much more, all from the command line. Although intended for developers, these commands are also useful to help you debloat your phone, tweak hidden settings, and enable other options.
ADB commands can be sent to a phone that’s either hooked up to a PC or connected to the same wireless network as the PC. They’re generally sent from a PC’s terminal or command prompt window and can’t be sent from the phone itself unless it’s been rooted. However, through an app called Local ADB Shell, or LADB for short, ADB commands can be sent straight from the phone without the need for rooting it or connecting it to a PC.
Developed by XDA Recognized Developer tytydraco, LADB leverages Android’s built-in support for ADB over WiFi to provide a GUI for sending shell commands straight from the device. Search for “terminal emulator” on Google Play and you’ll find dozens of apps that provide access to Android’s command line shell. What sets LADB apart from the rest of these apps is that it bundles an ADB server within the app, which is what allows it to be set up to run shell commands with the same privileges as ADB shell. With ADB shell privileges, you can do things like debloat your phone, change hidden settings, and a whole lot more right from your phone.
In order to set up LADB, though, you’ll first need to enable ADB over WiFi, but the process to do so will differ depending on your device and Android OS version.
For devices running Android 10 or older, ADB over WiFi can be enabled after some initial setup from a PC. That means on older Android versions, you’ll still need to go through the process to set up ADB on your PC. Once you do that, you can then have the app send commands to the ADB server started on the device.
Thanks to Android 11 introducing native support for wireless debugging, LADB can be set up entirely on device without needing root or hooking up to a PC for initialization. Here’s how you can set up LADB on your Android device. We’re assuming your device runs Android 11 for the sake of this tutorial because if not, you’ll have to manually set up ADB on your PC to get it working anyway, which defeats the main purpose of using LADB. (If you own a OnePlus phone that runs OxygenOS 10 based on Android 10, though, you can use LADB wire and PC-free since OnePlus baked in their own wireless debugging feature.)
How to use LADB to debloat your phone (and more) on Android 11+
Open Settings > About Phone and tap on the “Build number” field 7 times. This will enable “Developer Options.” (Note: The “About Phone” page may be called something else or buried somewhere else in Settings on your device.)
Go to Settings > System > Developer Options and enable “USB debugging” and “Wireless debugging.” (Note: Just like “About Phone”, the “Developer Options” page may be found elsewhere in Settings on your device.)
Open the LADB app. It will show a “Pairing information” dialog.
Open the recent apps screen. Press and hold on the app’s icon and tap “Split Screen” to open LADB in split-screen multitasking view.
On the bottom half, open Settings. Go to System > Developer Options > Wireless debugging. Tap on “Pair device with pairing code.” You’ll see a “Pair with device” dialog pop-up.
Copy the 6 digit “Wi-Fi pairing code” and paste it into the “pairing code” box in LADB. Copy the 5 digit port number from the IP address (the 5 numbers after the colon) and paste it into the “Port” box in LADB.
Hit “OKAY” in LADB and you should hopefully see text that says “Success! *\(^o^)/*”
Now you’re ready to type whatever ADB shell command you want into the “Shell command” box at the bottom. Looking for things to do? Check out our list of ADB tutorials for things you can try!
If you’re having trouble setting up LADB, be sure to hit the three-dot menu icon in the top right and go to the Help section. Here you can reset the server which restores the app to factory settings and deletes pairing information and ADB server files. You can also read through the troubleshooting tips to find answers to frequently asked questions.
I’ve used LADB on a couple of different devices, including an ASUS ZenFone 7 Pro and a Google Pixel 4 running Android 11. I haven’t had much trouble setting it up on either, but I did notice that any Android TV device with “Network Debugging” enabled will strangely interfere with LADB’s pairing process. If you’re having trouble with pairing and have an Android TV device, check to make sure that “Network Debugging” isn’t turned on. You’ll know it’s interfering if you see an ADB authorization prompt show up on your TV whenever you try to set up LADB on your phone.
If you have any feedback or questions to ask the developer, check out the XDA forum thread for LADB linked below or email the developer at tylernij@gmail.com. The app is also open source if you’re interested in compiling it for yourself — the price on Google Play can be considered a donation towards the developer for making this app!
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