Many of you are amazed by the Vivo X21 in-display fingerprint scanner, it’s the first smartphone in India to feature one, however, there are lots of things you can do in Vivo X21. No wonder it is power packed with the Snapdragon 660 and 6 GB RAM, the FunTouch 4.0 OS which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo has several features worth noting. For those who are already using the Vivo X21 or just planning to buy one, you should check out the Vivo X21 hidden features, tips and tricks that we have shared below.
1) Show Battery Percentage & Network Speed
Starting off with the first trick is that it’s important for on any user to view the battery percentage in the notification bar, the Vivo X21 doesn’t show you a number there, but instead the animated icon. In addition to that, when using mobile data or Wi-Fi network, you also want to see the real-time internet speeds.
What you can do is go to the Settings -> Status bar and notification and enable the two sliders that say ‘Battery Percentage‘ and ‘Network Speed‘. That’s it, you are done.
2) Unlock Vivo X21 Via Face
Starting from the Vivo V7, the new addition of the feature Face Access which is nothing but the face unlock feature used to unlock the phone via your face. The Vivo X21 also supports face unlocking features aside from its in-display fingerprint scanner.
Register your face in the Settings -> Fingerprint, face and password menu and use it for unlocking the Vivo X21.
3) Smart Click – Shortcut Via Volume Down Keys
One of the easiest ways to either turn on the flashlight or quickly open camera, this simple trick will let you do it by pressing and holding the volume key. When the screen is off, all you need is press and hold the volume down key to enable specific functions like quickly opening the camera, turning on the flashlight, record audio, open Facebook or assign the function to any other app.
The Smart Click function can be found at the bottom of the Settings, just turn it on from there and use the volume keys efficiently.
4) Take Three Finger Screenshots
If you are not satisfied with the conventional fingerprint shortcut, you can use the gesture provided on the Vivo X21. It’s more intuitive, easy, effective and requires less effort than the button way which mostly uses two hands or fingers.
To enable three finger screenshots gesture, head to the Settings -> Screenshot -> Take a quick screenshot and enable the two sliders ‘Three fingers swipe screenshot‘ and ‘Screenshot floating window‘. When you take a screenshot, a floating window on the right corner will appear after the screenshot has been taken for further options like editing, sharing, long screenshot.
5) Clone Apps
if you haven’t heard of this, cloning apps is a feature that creates dual instances of apps for using two different accounts on it. For example dual WhatsApp on a phone. Vivo X21 supports Clone Apps feature which does the same by creating another app that you choose and here you can use both the apps, the clone app and the original app simultaneously without affecting each other.
Note: ‘Clone Apps’ only works with supported apps.
To enable this feature, enter Settings -> App Clone and choose the desired app you want to clone from the list.
6) Apply AR Stickers
With a great 24 MP AI selfie camera, the Vivo X21 also features AR stickers. You can access it from the camera app by swiping from the camera modes. There are a number of pre-installed stickers that works in real-time, it attaches to your face and works with your facial movements. You can not only click the selfies or pictures, but also short videos using it.
7) Palm Capture
Another camera feature that comes handy is the Palm Capture. With that, you can click the images by showing your palm at the camera, a nifty little trick to take shots when you can’t reach the camera button. Enable it inside the camera settings and you are good to go.
8) Lock Apps Via Fingerprint & Face Data
To add more security on your Vivo X21, securing it from the lockscreen isn’t enough, you should also lock the apps via fingerprint scanner and facial data. Securing the apps is always better than leaving them unsecured.
Go to Fingerprint, face and password -> Privacy and app encryption under Settings, set a password and turn it on.
9) Record Screen Activity
What more you can do on Vivo X21? Record screens with built-in screen recorder. Swipe to open the Control Center at the bottom and tap the S-capture. Under that, tap Record Screen to record the screen activity. Yes, it’s that easy.
10) Navigate The Phone With Gestures
When we talk about the navigation, most smartphones nowadays don’t come with physical keys since the start of the bezel-less trend and wider 18:9 and above displays. The Vivo X21, being a bezel-less phone itself comes with 19:9 notch display has no physical keys, but on-screen navigation.
A new gesture-based navigation is added to the FunTouch OS that leads to an easy navigation. We have already explained on Vivo V9 and it’s almost the same on Vivo X21.
Head to the Settings -> System navigation and tick the Navigation gestures option. Once you enable the System navigation gestures, the on-screen buttons will be removed and three bars will be visible. These bars can be changed with the dots if required under the ‘Order and style of navigation gestures’.
There are a total of 5 types of gestures all work with swiping from the bottom to the top.
- Swipe from the Left for Control Center
- Swipe from the Center for Homescreen
- Swipe from the Right for back
- Swipe from the Center and hold for recent apps
- Swipe the navigation bars or dots for apps switching
11) Smart Split Screen
The Smart Split can be triggered with three fingers swipe from the top to the bottom gesture or from the Control Center. It also works as Picture In Picture for Apps as well as floating apps for selected apps.
12) Eye Protection Mode
Using phones at night can cause eye strains due to blue light emitted from the screens. Vivo X21 offers an eye protection mode to filter the Blue light. Open Control Center and eye protection mode.
13) Face Beauty For Video Call
If you have seen the Face Beauty effects in the camera, the same effects can be applied in video calling apps using Vivo’s exclusive face beauty function. Turn it on in the Settings -> More settings -> Face beauty for video call. When enabled, the face beauty can be adjusted during video calls.
14) Always On Display
Similar to what top-of-the-line flagships offer, the Vivo X21 is also competent for Always On display. Once enabled, you can view battery, time, and notifications when the screen is off. It may consume some battery power, but, you will get an impressive feature that not all phones can deliver.
15) Flash On Incoming Calls & Notifications
Turn it on and the Flashlight will blink whenever you receive a call, message or notifications. Enable it under Settings -> More settings -> Flashlight notifications.
16) Floating Ball Shortcuts
The FunTouch OS 4.0 also comes with a feature called Easy Touch that allows users to navigate with the Vivo X21 through a floating ball. There’s a whole lot you can do with the floating ball like go to Homescreen, take screenshots, flashlight, etc. Go to Settings -> More settings -> Easy touch to turn it on.
17) Blur Recent Apps That Are Protected
Earlier we mentioned about the apps that are secured using your facial data and fingerprint. In addition to that, you have the option to blur the protected app in the recent apps menu. Go to Settings -> More settings -> Recent apps and enable the ‘Blur display’.
Vivo X21 can also shoot 4K videos, Live Photos, bokeh shots as well as change wallpapers on the lockscreen automatically and there are more. If you find any other features or tricks on your Vivo X21, don’t forget to share with us because we might have missed some.
Do visit more cool stuff on our How-To Guides.
