For many users, the Android operating system's greatest charm, or at least one of its greatest appeals, lies in its versatility. Personally, this aspect, the openness of the system, is what allowed me to remain a loyal user of the platform for around 15 years. Because Android always offers more than what we see.
In other words, the operating system and the personalized layer used by manufacturers, even the “purest Android” offered by the Google Pixel or Motorola mobiles, hide functions and features accessible only by following a series of steps inaccessible to the naked eye. Sometimes it is necessary to play on a word several times, other times however, you need to know the secret codes.
And the latter is precisely what we will see below, a series of codes that offer very useful information about the mobile, and even They allow us to know things like if someone has accessed our WhatsApp without authorizationamong others. Not all codes work on all brands, which is something we need to take into account.
How to know the identification number of our mobile
Let's start with something basic, but nevertheless very important: every mobile phone has an identification number, some kind of identifier only for mobile devices. His name is IMEIand if you don't have your smartphone box at hand, to find out the IMEI number, it's:
- Go to the Phone app
- Dial (as if you were going to make a call) the following combination: *#06#
Then you will see a pop-up window with the IMEI and other codes of the mobile, as well as an “OK” button to close the window. This code works on virtually all Android phones.
How to know WiFi status and more information on your mobile
The following code allows learn more about the devicelike information about which 5G/LTE bands the device supports and, more interestingly, know WiFi status and do a quick Ping test, if you like.
Before we continue, a warning: From now on, the menus that we enter using the codes will be able to include advanced configuration options that are better not to touch, unless we really know what we are going to do and the result. In other words, if you see a button and you don't know exactly what it does, it's best not to touch it.
To access detailed mobile and WiFi information, follow these steps:
- Access the phone application
- Select the following combination: *#*#4636#*#*
- On this screen we will see several options to access a lot of information. We can, for example, access “WiFi Information” then select “WiFi Status” to check the status of our connection or perform a Ping test.
How to know if they accessed an app without your permission
The information section we accessed when checking the combination *#*#4636#*#* (as in the previous step) includes an option called “Usage Statistics” which can be very useful to find out if someone has done something wrong with your mobile.
If, for example, you lent your cell phone to someone to watch a YouTube video, make a call, or take a photo, but you don't know if they did anything else, you can find out from of this menu.
When you enter the Usage Statistics section, you will see all applications that have been used on the mobile. From the drop-down menu, you can select “Last Used” to see exactly which apps were last used on the mobile. Unfortunately, this code does not work on Samsung Galaxy phones.
Cleaning temporary system files
Finally, using a secret code it is also possible to clean the system files and applications of a Samsung Galaxy on a daily basis. This is not something we recommend doing constantly, especially if you have a premium range mobile. However, occasional cleaning can be helpful on phones with more limited hardware and less storage capacity.
But remember, if your mobile works very slowlyyou can follow our advice to improve its performance.
- Access the phone app
- Dial the following combination: *#9900#
- Select the “Delete dumpstate/logcat” option.
Remember that thing we mentioned earlier about menus being full of options and buttons we shouldn't touch? This is one of those cases. We recommend only pressing the button to delete temporary files, as this section is full of advanced options.
Samsung and Google Pixel diagnostic tool
If you bought a second-hand cell phone, or simply you want to check the operation of your devicesome manufacturers offer a hidden diagnostic tool.
In the case of devices SamsungGalaxy You can access the phone app and dial the following combination: *#0*#
Then you will see a screen full of options to check screen status using colors, touch screen status, mobile phone vibration and more options.
In the Google-Pixelsaccess the phone application and dial the following combination: *#*#7287#*#*
As with Samsung phones, from this diagnostic tool you can check the status of the speakers, microphones, touchscreen and even the fingerprint reader.
In Xataka Android | All the ways to locate a mobile phone in real time, without installing suspicious applications
In Xataka Android | Prevent your mobile from connecting to WiFi networks you don't want: this way you can delete those you no longer need
Table of Contents
