Realme has just launched its brand new Android 10 based Realme UI which is also based on ColorOS 7, and it comes with some really cool features. The update has started rolling out on Realme XT and Realme 3 Pro, and will soon be rolled out on other Realme phones as well. So, if you have just received the update, or if you are waiting for it and wondering what to expect, here are 12 cool Realme UI features that you should know:
1. Dark Mode Is Here
Realme phones first got the Dark Mode with Color OS 6.1, but back then, the feature was in beta and was available through Realme Labs. With Realme UI, the company has finally moved the feature out of beta and it’s now available in the Display settings for the phone.
2. Partial Screenshots and Screenshot Gestures
Realme UI also adds a bunch of useful features to screenshots on your phone. The three finger gesture to take screenshot now also supports partial screenshots so you can just take a picture of a part of the screen instead of having to take a full screenshot and then cropping it.
If you often record your phone’s screen to share stuff with your friends (I usually am recording Bitmoji Stories to share the funny ones with my friends), or if you like recording your PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty: Mobile gameplay on your phone, you’ll be glad to know that Realme UI also brings the ability to screen record with internal audio.
To enable this, you can simply long press on the Screen Recording tile in the Quick Settings shade, and turn on the “Record System Sound” toggle to enable internal audio recording.
While One Handed Mode has been present for a while even in ColorOS 6, it’s not very easily accessible. You first had to drag the tile into the quick settings pane, and then tap on it to enter one-handed mode.
One of the hottest topics over the last year has been protection of user-privacy and personal information. To that end, Realme UI brings one of the best ColorOS 7 features to Realme smartphones — Personal Information Protection.
This will be very useful for apps that ask for intrusive permissions for no discernible reason whatsoever. So the next time Truecaller asks for your contacts, just use Realme’s Personal Information Protection and ensure that your contact list doesn’t get sent over to Truecaller’s servers.
One of my biggest peeves with ColorOS is that swiping down on the home screen brings up the stupid Global Search feature that I never use. However, with Realme UI, you can now change the behaviour of that swipe down gesture to bring down the notification shade instead. This way, you can easily access your notifications without having to reach all the way over to the status bar with your thumb.
Realme UI also has this great feature that allows you to quickly lock your phone with just a double tap on the home-screen. This is something I used a lot on my old Android smartphone, and I think every phone should have this option. It’s just easier than having to use the power button every time, or waiting for the screen timeout to lock your phone.
Android users have long been asking for an AirDrop alternative on their smartphones, and recently Realme, Oppo, Xiaomi, and Vivo announced that they had created an alliance to create exactly such a feature. With Realme UI, the Realme Share feature now lets you share files, documents, images, music etc with other phones that support this new sharing system. This does make sharing files between smartphones a lot more easy.
Have you ever been in a situation where you’re listening to a song on your earphones and someone else also wants to hear it? Normally you’d give them one of your earbuds, but Realme UI brings a new feature called Dual Mode Music Share. With this feature, you can connect a pair of Bluetooth earphones and wired earphones with your phone, and play music on both of them at the same time.
What’s more, you can even make a call and keep the call working on one pair of earphones while your music plays on the other pair of earphones. It’s pretty handy, and definitely a feature that I would like to use. The feature is currently available in Realme Labs, but I’m hoping it comes out of beta soon.
Realme UI also brings a bunch of improvements to the UI for the default camera app on Realme phones. Chief among the good changes here include the fact that the option to use the ultra-wide lens in the Realme XT has now moved to a more approachable location from the earlier location at the very top of the UI.
Realme UI also brings a new Focus Mode to Realme smartphones. This is similar to the Zen Mode that OnePlus recently added to its phones, and is meant to ensure that you can focus on the tasks at hand without being distracted by your phone. Once you enable Focus Mode from the Quick Settings panel in Realme UI, you will not get any notifications on your phone, and the system will limit your usage of apps as well.
Lastly, Realme UI finally brings icon customisation to Realme smartphones. You can choose one of the three styles including the “Default” style, or go with “Material Style” icons or “Pebble” style icons.
Alternatively, you can enable the “Custom” icons in Realme UI which gives you the ability to change the background size, and the icon size of the icons, and make the corners more rounded if you want.
While the 12 features I’ve mentioned above are the major ones, there are a lot of other features that have been added to Realme UI as well. Here are some of the other features you’ll find when you update your phone to Realme UI based on Android 10:
Screen Lighting Effects
Riding Mode for Bikers
With Realme UI, you’ll also find some additional fingerprint scanner animations. There are three new animations here as compared to what was available earlier, and there are visual improvements as well. Instead of just showing you the name of the animation as was the case with Color OS 6, Realme UI shows an image of the animation, making it easier to quickly decide which animation to go with. Fingerprint animation options in ColorOS 6 (left) vs Realme UI (right)
