See the future with Process Stats
You may remember us talking about the RAM Manager that's due to be
introduced with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. RAM Manager is like the
battery stats section, but for memory. It provides you with geeky
stats on how long a process has been running, how much RAM it's using
and how good its overall performance is.
But you don't actually have to wait until you get Android Marshmallow
on your phone to have access to this information.
If you're an Android expert, you'll know about a rarely-used section
of the Developer Options called Process Stats. Process Stats already
gives you access to everything Marshmallow's RAM Manager will – and
more – and you can use it right now.
Process Stats keeps an eye on system memory demands, your most
RAM-hungry apps and the services that each app is running. It's
basically the god's-eye-view of what your phone and apps are up to.
It's great for knowing what's normal and identifying problematic apps
or runaway processes.
If you're not already familiar with Process Stats, here's how you
access it. First enable Developer Options: go to Settings > About
Phone and tap Build Number seven times until you see the Dev Options
message pop up. Back up a step and you'll see Developer Options at the
bottom of your Settings menu. Tap this, find Process Stats and start
familiarizing yourself with the inner workings of your phone.
---
Know the secret codes and menus for your phone
We've written about secret Android codes and hidden menus for various
devices before. These codes and menus allow you to do all sorts of
things, from testing your GPS, to accessing a diagnostics menu, simply
by tapping a sequence of characters into your phone's dialer.
Some codes work for all phones, others are specific to a particular
device or CPU, such as the Moto X Qualcomm settings menu. If you're a
true Android expert, then you'll know which ones exist for your device
You've also got a whole host of awesome Accessibility Settings, which
practically no one ever touches either. True Android fans not only
know about these menus, features and codes, but regularly make use of
them, whether they're underused parts of the visible system, or secret
back doors for technicians and testers. It goes without saying that
there are things behind these back doors that you probably shouldn't
mess with.
---
Monitor performance in real time
If you're a real Android expert, then you want to know what's going on
at all times with your phone. Like Process Stats above, which
primarily covers RAM management, there are apps that will let you
monitor the performance of your Android in real time.
Want to know how much data is being uploaded or downloaded all the
time? You can. Interested in changes in your CPU temperature when its
under load? No problem. Like to know exactly what is taking up the
most space on your internal storage? Piece of cake. There are tons of
apps and widgets available to keep you abreast of even the tiniest
change in your device. If you're not already making use of them, check
out our top choices in the link in the above paragraph.
