Android marshmallow tips and tricks

1. Uninstall apps from your home screen or app drawer

In Android Marshmallow you can now uninstall an app on your home screen or in your app drawer simply by long-pressing it. At the top of the screen you'll now see options for Remove orUninstall on the home screen, or App Info andUninstall in the app drawer. Simply drag the app icon to the one you want.

This is a neat way to save a few seconds over uninstalling apps in older versions of Android. 

You can now instantly uninstall apps from the home screen or app drawer. / © ANDROIDPIT

2. Activate Developer options

Developer options are nothing new, but there are a few new ones in Android Marshmallow. To access Developer options, go to Settings > About Phone and tap Build Number seven times until a toast pop-up notifies you that you are now a developer.

Back up a step and you'll see Developer optionslisted right above About Phone. This is where you can enable USB Debugging, OEM unlocking or Show touches, tweak animations or access some of the other tips below.

• Install Android Marshmallow on your smartphone

Enabling Developer Options is always one of the first things we do. / © ANDROIDPIT

3. Grant app permissions individually

Granular app permissions was the holy grail of the Android Marshmallow release. We all hoped it would pan out but no one really believed it would. We had always been told that denying specific app permissions within a third-party app could break it.

Now, however, Android lets you manage app permissions individually, without developers having had to do anything, and everything seems to work swimmingly.

You can view and toggle permissions for an individual app. / © ANDROIDPIT

To access app permissions, go to Settings > Apps and tap an individual app to see its permissions. Then simply flip the switch for the permissions you do or don't want to grant it.

You can also view a list of permissions to see which have been granted to which apps. Just go to Settings > Apps, then tap the overflow menu in the top right corner and go to Advanced > App Permissions.

You can also view app permissions by permission type. / © ANDROIDPIT

4. Customize Quick Settings using System UI Tuner

To enable the System UI Tuner, bring down yourQuick Settings menu (swipe down from the top of your phone with two fingers) and tap and hold the settings button (cog wheel) for five seconds. When you let go you will be asked if you would like to enable System UI Tuner. Select yes and you'll see System UI Tuner at the bottom of your Settings list.

In System UI Tuner, tap Quick Settings and you'll see a mockup of your Quick Settings shade. You can add tiles (press the + at the bottom), move the toggles around (tap and drag) or delete toggles (tap and drag to the bottom). Your changes will be reflected in the Quick Settingsmenu.

The UI Tuner lets you rearrange your Quick Settings menu. / © ANDROIDPIT

5. Get to know RAM Manager

Android Marshmallow is all about giving us even more power over our beloved Androids, and RAM is a huge part of that. Go to Settings > Memory > Memory used by apps, to see a list of all your memory-hogging apps.

Tapping an entry will show you detailed info and give you the option to force stop the app if necessary. Take some time to familiarize yourself with this part of your Android – it's a great tool to help you understand what RAM usage is normal and what's out of the ordinary.

The new Memory section in the advanced app settings gives you a clear picture of RAM usage. / © ANDROIDPIT

6. Find your Downloaded, Running, All and Disabled app tabs

The RAM Manager is also effectively the new home for the 'Running' tab that was in previous versions of the Settings > Appssection. Unlike previous Android versions, Android Marshmallow doesn't break your apps list down into tabs for 'Downloaded', 'Running', 'All' and 'Disabled'.

The 'Running' tab now appears as RAM Manager; 'All' and 'Disabled' are now options in a drop-down menu, accessible once you've disabled at least one app. The default view inSettings > Apps is the 'All' apps tab. We'll have to wait and see how devices with SD cards display the information that was previously found in the 'SD Card' tab.

On the right, we now have a drop-down menu for disabled and enabled apps. / © ANDROIDPIT

7. Automatically associate links

Android Marshmallow allows you to automatically associate specific apps with specific types of links. So if someone emails you a Twitter link, for example, you can set Twitter as the default app for opening such links, rather than picking from a list every time.

Although you could set certain apps as default apps before, the system didn't work all that well. Now you can associate specific domain URLs with an app of your choice. For example, all facebook.com links can be set to open either in Facebook, Tinfoil or another third-party Facebook app automatically.

To do this, go to Settings > Apps, then tap the overflow menu at the top right and go to Advanced > App Links, then flip the switch for the apps that you want to set to automatically intercept links from specific domains.

Android Marshmallow gives you complete control over which apps handle certain domains. / © ANDROIDPIT

8. Ignore battery optimizations

Doze is pretty cool: it activates when your phone is left idle for a period of time, while unplugged and with the screen off. It will stop some CPU and network activity operating in the background for some Android apps, thus saving battery. 

You might not like it in every scenario though. Doze mode can interrupt the background activity of your apps in order to make these battery savings. So if you don't want this to happen to certain apps, you can disable Doze mode to keep these apps running. Follow the steps below to switch off the battery saving functionality of Doze.

How to disable doze in Android 6.0 Marshmallow

1. Head over to your phone's Settings.

2. Select Battery from the device list and select Battery optimization from the menu icon at the top-right of the screen.

3. Select All apps from the drop-down menu in the center of the display. Now you'll see all the apps that are Doze-enabled.

Disabling Doze for particular apps isn't hard. / © ANDROIDPIT

4. You can now select any apps for which you'd like to disable Doze mode.

5. Select Don't optimize and then Done. Now you're set up.

Now the apps you've selected won't have Doze optimizations, just as you'd prefer. Let us know in the comments section if you see changes to battery life or app activity as a result of Doze, and if you think Doze is a good addition to Marshmallow.