The realme 5 Pro is among the two recent realme smartphones running the ColorOS 6.0 and if you’ve just bought the phone, these top 10 tips and tricks and hidden features will let you make the most out of your realme 5 Pro. Take a look.
1) Take Three-Finger Screenshots
One of the coolest things you can do on the realme 5 Pro is to take screenshots with gestures. Apart from the traditional Power + Volume Down keys, you can capture the screen with your three fingers without pressing any of the buttons. This is also the quickest way on the phone to capture the screenshot with a gesture. If you didn’t know that, well, now you do.
- Turn on the feature Three-Finger Screenshot under the Settings -> Convenience Aid -> Gesture & Motion.
2) Running Dual Apps Of Same Kind (Two WhatsApps, Instagram…)
With a huge number of dual SIM smartphones in India, people who are running two WhatsApps under different numbers end up using two different devices. WhatsApp doesn’t allow you to keep multiple accounts on the same device unless your phone supports some kind of dual apps features.
To overcome this, the ColorOS has a nice addition to the realme 5 Pro which lets you create a clone of the apps you want to use under different accounts.
Don’t believe me? Try running WhatsApp (or Instagram or Facebook or any other) with another number by this Clone Apps feature and you will be amazed. If you have been running two WhatsApp accounts on two multiple devices, this feature will help you keep both the accounts on the same phone, realme 5 Pro in this case.
Note: ‘Clone Apps’ only works with supported apps.
- Turn on this feature under Settings -> Clone Apps and see if the apps support this function.
When Clone Apps is turned on, a new copy of the app will be generated on the homescreen. Both, the clone app and the original app can be run simultaneously without affecting each other.
3) Record Screen Activity
Recoding screens are now easier, thanks to the ColorOS which lets you record the screen with one tap. Want to record screen activity, a video or chat or gameplay? Just try this screen recording feature that will capture a short video of the screen and save it to the gallery so that you can share it with your friends.
Sometimes the stories on the Snapchat, Instagram and other social apps disappear, hence, this feature is also useful for those who want to capture the stories.
To record the screen, bring the notification panel from the top and tap the icon ‘Start Screen Recording‘ to start the screen. Once the screen activity is recorded, a video file will be saved in the gallery. You will be prompted with instructions, follow them and start recording.
4) Display Battery Percentage In Notification Bar
Searching for the battery percentage in the status bar? For those who have just bought the realme 5 Pro, let me tell you, the realme 5 Pro doesn’t show battery percentage in the status bar by default, and that’s with every other Android smartphone we know. That said, you need to manually enter the battery settings and turn it on to see the percentage.
It’s definitely a no brainer and many of you know how to get it done, however, those who are new to the realme smartphones and can’t figure it out, here’s what you need to do to.
- Go to the Settings -> Notification & Status Bar and enable the Battery Percentage slider.
5) Show Real-Time Network Speed
Aside from the battery percentage, you should also know that the status bar has real-time network speed indicator that shows you the current internet speed whenever you browse the internet, download, stream, game online or do any internet-related activity.
- Go to Settings -> Notification & Status Bar and tap the Real Time Network Speed slider just below the Battery Percentage.
6) Navigate With Easy Gestures
Navigation on Android is nowadays too mainstream if you are still using the Home, Back, and Recent buttons. Have you been recently moved to the Android 9 navigation? You may see the realme 5 Pro offers similar gestures to navigate itself, the ColorOS also allows you to navigate the phone with gestures to keep things easier.
Turning on the navigation gestures will eliminate the on-screen buttons. Go to Settings -> Convenience Aid -> Navigation Keys and enable the navigation gestures.
How to use navigation gestures?
Select from the two different types of gestures,
- Swipe Gestures from Both Sides
- Swipe-up Gestures
You will see the instructions at the bottom on how to use the navigation gestures.
7) Floating Assistive Ball
Although gesture navigation is great, this assistive ball, or say, a floating ball makes things easier for you to navigate. It helps with super quick navigation, no wonder you hold the phone in any orientation. It floats on the screen in any corners and on top of all the apps.
The floating ball can be dragged anywhere wherever is suitable for you. How does it help to navigate? The Assistive Ball lets you go back, go to Home screen, and switch to recent apps just as the navigation works. Also added is a shortcut to screenshot and a shortcut to lock the screen all that can be customized in the Assistive Ball settings.
There are two options,
- Gesture Operations – tap to go back, tap and hold for Home Screen, and double-tap for recent apps
- Tap menu – Tapping the assistive ball shows you the options
Head to the phone settings to get the Floating Assistive Ball – Settings -> Convenience Aid -> Assistive Ball.
8) Smart Sidebar
Similar to the floating ball, the Smart Sidebar opens a group of handy shortcuts like taking screenshots, record screen, silent notifications, as well as, a shortcut to camera and apps. Take a look at the screenshot that shows the sidebar can be brought by swiping from the side edge where you will see a slight edge of the bar.
Enable the Smart Sidebar under Settings -> Convenience Aid -> Smart Sidebar.
9) Use The Screen-Off Gestures
What if I say you don’t want to unlock the phone for small tasks, like opening the camera, flashlight, music control, and etc. The screen-off gestures will give you control over the small tasks without unlocking the realme 5 Pro.
You simply draw the letters to get things done, for instance;
- Double tap to turn screen on
- Draw O to start camera
- Draw V to open torch light
- Music Control: Draw || to pause/play a track, draw < or > to switch the track
Turn it on under the Settings -> Convenience Aid -> Gesture & Motion -> Screen-off Gestures.
10) Press Power Button To Trigger Voice Assistant
Press and hold the power button for 0.5 seconds to bring the Google Assistant quickly. This shortcut helps you to quickly search or ask anything to the voice assistant without unlocking the phone.
11) Make Use Of Split Screen Mode
Another impressive tip for those who run multiple apps at the same time or multitask on the phone, the realme 5 Pro has a built-in gesture-based split-screen feature that lets you split the two apps into two half screens to use them at the same time.
If you’ve been familiar with the three-finger screenshot, this works in a reverse gesture. Running multiple apps at the same isn’t far from a single swipe, all you need is a three-finger swipe upwards on the screen (knowing that swiping downwards will take a screenshot).
App Split Screen can be turned on in the Settings -> App Split-screen.
12) Night Shield
Lastly, the Night mode comes handy during night reading or surfing, the realme 5 Pro has a quick shortcut to the notification panel. The Night Mode eliminates blue light emitted from the screen that causes eye strains.
Enable it from the notification panel shortcuts or go to Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Night Shield.
13) Check Free RAM
Checking the free RAM or available RAM on the realme devices isn’t tricky once you know how to view it.
- Head to the Settings and search ‘RAM’ in the search box.
- Tap on the ‘Display RAM/Memory Information for Recent Tasks’ slider to turn on the RAM usage in the recent apps menu.
Alternately, you can enter the Settings -> Additional Settings -> Display RAM/Memory Information for Recent Tasks and enable the slider.
Once you turn on this setting, you can easily view the RAM usage or the available RAM on the phone by tapping or bringing up the Recents Apps menu. Take a look at this screenshot.
14) OTG Connection
Thinking of plugging in any USB drives or any USB device like a keyboard or a mouse on the realme 5 Pro? If you own an OTG cable or USB OTG adapter, you can directly plug in any thumb drives and read the data. Turn on the USB OTG feature by entering Settings -> Additional Settings and select OTG connection.
That was pretty much it. Do let us know in the comments if you know any more tips or tricks related to the realme smartphones. For more awesome guides, take a look at the How-To Guides.
