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Knowledge Base // Tutorial 05

Make Your Android Phone Feel Faster by Speeding Up Animations

Difficulty: Easy No apps needed Pixel & Galaxy

Every time you open an app or switch screens, Android plays a short animation. Android’s hidden Developer options menu lets you shorten those animations, which makes your phone feel faster and more responsive. It takes three settings, and you can undo it any time.

Phone showing three animation scales set to 0.5x Illustration of an Android phone screen listing window, transition and animator scales, each set to 0.5x, with speed lines on both sides and a lightning bolt. WINDOW TRANSITION ANIMATOR 0.5x 0.5x 0.5x
Checklist // Before You Start

What You Need

Warning // Read First

Change Only These Three

Developer options is a hidden menu of advanced settings meant for building and testing apps. Changing other settings in it can make apps misbehave or slow your phone down. For this tutorial, change only the three animation scales and leave everything else alone.

Walkthrough // Steps 01–03

Unlock Developer Options

Menu names vary between phone makers and Android versions.

  1. Step 1: Find Build number

    Pixel: Settings > About phone > Build number.

    Samsung Galaxy: Settings > About phone > Software information > Build number.

    On other phones, look under Android version or Software information in About phone.

  2. Step 2: Tap it seven times

    Tap Build number 7 times in a row until you see You are now a developer! If asked, enter your PIN, pattern or password.

  3. Step 3: Open Developer options

    Pixel: Settings > System > Developer options.

    Samsung Galaxy: it’s at the very bottom of the main Settings list. On some models, look in General > Developer options.

Walkthrough // Steps 04–06

Speed Up the Animations

  1. Step 4: Go to the Drawing section

    In Developer options, scroll down to the Drawing section.

  2. Step 5: Change the three animation scales

    Tap each of these and choose .5x:

    • Window animation scale
    • Transition animation scale
    • Animator duration scale

    A lower scale means faster animations, so the phone feels snappier.

  3. Step 6: Try it out

    Go back to your home screen and open a few apps. Opening apps and switching screens should feel quicker. Don’t like it? See the undo steps below.

Undo // Back To Normal

Undo It

  1. Step 1: Put the scales back

    In Developer options, set all three animation scales back to 1x.

  2. Step 2: Or turn Developer options off

    Open Developer options and turn off the switch at the top. This turns off everything you changed there. On Samsung, the menu also disappears from Settings.

    If your phone still feels slow or glitchy after that, restart it.

Pro Tip

Rather Skip Developer Options?

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