New Android phone? Change these 4 settings immediately

When you get a new Android phone and boot it up for the first time, the operating system should prepare for your experience. This mainly involves connecting to the network, downloading system updates, and customizing your user settings. Fortunately, one of the new features added to Android phones in 2026 was a simplified and significantly improved device setup process. This may still take a little time, but even once finished, you may want to tinker around a bit before getting started. There are a variety of options you may want to adjust, new apps you may want to install or remove, or changes you may want to make. For example, on an old Android phone that seems slow, there is a hidden setting you can change to make it snappier and faster. You might even want to do this on a new device.

It goes beyond that of course. Maybe you want to remove pre-installed apps and bloatware before you start grabbing yours from the Play Store? Maybe you want to change the appearance of the device with a launcher, new themes or wallpapers. The beauty of Android is its full support for customization, and this is true whether you own a Google Pixel device, a Samsung device, a Motorola device, or a completely different brand. Anyway, before you jump into the new OS and phone experience, you should consider changing some settings or configurations as soon as possible.

Adaptive or automatic brightness is a setting usually enabled on new Android devices. Using a built-in sensor, the phone can detect when you are in a bright environment, such as direct sunlight, and automatically increase the brightness for easier visibility. Then, when you return indoors or to a dark area, the brightness should return to normal. It is supposed to improve battery life by optimizing these models. But when the settings are wrong, it can make things harder to see, and many users say it drains the battery faster than when they adjust the brightness themselves. However, you will need to enable Android Developer Mode before you can access this setting.

Battery life also depends on your device or use case. For example, if Adaptive Brightness is turned on and you go outside frequently, the screen brightness must increase to compensate, which can definitely affect battery life. To turn it off, go to Settings > Display, then tap the button next to Adaptive Brightness. Alternatively, you can set the base brightness much lower by adjusting the slider above this toggle.

After a period of inactivity, your phone’s screen will automatically turn off, saving you valuable battery life. But the default setting is 30 seconds, which is almost too fast. If you are reading, for example, and not interacting with the screen, it may turn off in the middle of a page or article. Changing this to one or two minutes gives you enough time to use your phone before the screen turns off. If you think 30 seconds is too long, you can also reduce the wait time further.

To change this setting, go to Settings > Display > Screen Timeout. You should see several options ranging from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Choose the one that you think works best. Remember that you can always change it later. On some devices, like my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, there is an option to keep the screen on while viewing: it uses the front camera to detect your face and will keep the screen active if you look directly at it. I chose to leave this option disabled, but it’s still worth pointing out to anyone who might find it useful.

Let’s say you want to show something to a friend, colleague or acquaintance on your phone, so you hand it over for a minute. You don’t really want to give them all the freedom to snoop on your device. There is actually an Android setting you can enable to prevent this from happening. This is called screen pinning, and it allows you to pin the currently active app or window so that it cannot be minimized. This is also a nice feature if you have your phone in your pocket and don’t want it to accidentally switch apps: I pin my music player when I mow the lawn so the phone doesn’t jump between apps in my sweaty pocket.

However, you must enable the feature before you can use it. To do this, go to Settings > Security (or More security settings on Samsung) and tap the button next to Allow app pinning.

To pin an app, open your recent apps overview by swiping from the middle of the screen or tapping the recent button in the navigation bar. At the very top of the app you want to pin, in the center, you will see the app icon. Tap on it, then select the pin option. To unpin, simply swipe up and hold, or touch and hold the Back and Preview buttons in the navigation bar. For added security, you can also lock the unpinning process behind your PIN, pattern, or password.

Often, you’ll set a password or pattern for your phone, lock your sensitive data behind secure accounts and passwords, and sometimes even hide apps you don’t want others to see. For example, you protect your phone, but most forget to lock their SIM card, the only component that allows it to connect to different networks. If someone swipes your phone, ejects your SIM card and tries to put it in another device, as long as it’s locked, they can’t use it. This will not work for calls, SMS, or one-time password (OTP) hijacking.

To lock it, go to Settings > Security > SIM card lock on most Android devices, or Settings > Security & privacy > More security settings > SIM card security on a Samsung. Once the setting is enabled, you will have a limited number of attempts to enter a security PIN from your mobile carrier. Most of the time, you can find this PIN in your wireless account security settings, whether through Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile. You may need to contact a service representative if you cannot find it. Once activated, you can leave the PIN as is or replace it with a custom number, which is highly recommended.

When SIM lock is enabled, your phone will ask you for your SIM card security PIN every time it restarts. This is something to keep in mind, but it significantly improves the security of your mobile.

Beyond changing settings, there are a few other things you can change to configure your new phone before serious use. You need to make sure that you can find and restore your phone using Find My Device. This allows you to connect remotely and locate your phone if you misplace it. To enable it, go to Security & Privacy in the device settings. After syncing your phone with your Google account, you can access Google Find My Hub in any browser to log in remotely.

You’ll also want to adjust or customize the Quick Settings bar. This is the drop-down menu, which you can access by swiping down from the top, giving you access to important settings like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location services, and more. You can actually add and remove settings that appear in this pane and adjust their location so that something you use often appears first. Swipe down to lower the panel, then select the Edit (pencil) icon. On a Samsung with One UI 8.5, you’ll need to tap Edit again (after the pencil icon) to configure the quick settings options.

Additionally, try installing a new keyboard like Gboard and a new messaging app like Google Messages (if not already installed), and possibly setting up widgets on the home screen to give your Android a personal touch. Installing a privacy-friendly browser instead of stock options is never a bad idea, like Firefox or Brave. Additionally, you’ll want to disable RAM Plus or swap space if it’s active and your phone has more than 8GB of RAM available. This is a newer Android feature that could slow down your phone because it uses internal storage as makeshift system memory or RAM.