How to Mail merge with personalization and attachments using "Gmail"

How to Mail merge with personalization and attachments using "Gmail"

People generally use Gmail’s Bcc feature when sending an email to large number of people at the same time then what makes Gmail Mail Merge better?

Everyone knows that an email resonates better with the recipient if it’s personalized. If you want to stand out in your emails, personalization is the way ahead with information from your database like the recipients’ name, company or address.

A mail merge program helps you send personalized email messages to multiple contacts in one go. Each message has the same content but some parts of the message can be customized – like you can greet each recipient by their first name.

Gmail Mail Merge is for whom?

Many people benefit from being able to use Gmail Mail Merge. Typical use cases include:

Mail Merge in Gmail is for everyone. If you are organizing a party at your home, you can send personalized email invitations to all your friends with the help of mail merge. A business owner can use mail merge to inform customers about upcoming deals and offers. Sales and marketing teams use Mail Merge for drip campaigns. Teachers can send individual assignments and reports to students, Account Executives, marketing managers, PR consultants, Entrepreneurs, teachers, business associates, friends, HR executives etc,.

Gmail’s mail Merge Features

Ø One-click importing of Google Contacts for sending personalized emails

Ø Insert different file attachments for each email recipient.

Ø Upload files from your computer or select existing documents from your Google Drive

Ø Send merged emails immediately or schedule message for sending later.

Ø Automatically CC or BCC every email message to your CRM or any other email address.

Ø Automatically create drafts in Gmail from Mail Merge and review them before sending.

Ø Send emails on behalf of any another email address that is configured as an alias in Gmail.

Ø Write your messages in plain text, rich HTML or use an existing Gmail draft as and email template.

Ø Track your email opens  (read receipts) and clicks on links  [Premium]

Ø Add an unsubscribe link to your email campaigns, view unsubscribes report  [Premium]

Ø Email bounced reports show messages that were not delivered [Premium]

Ø Give your contacts an option to unsubscribe from your mail list [Premium]

Ø Send a test email to verify your Mail Merge campaign setting before sending the email blast to all recipients

Ø Set the Mail Merge Status column to SKIP if you would like to skip merging certain rows in the current batch.

 

How to Create Mail Merge with Gmail
Microsoft Outlook with Word has Mail Merge functionality built-in but if you are a Gmail or Google Apps user, you may still use mail merge easily with the help of Google Docs.

And though the Mail Merge program using Google Docs, this is not limited to Gmail users. If you have linked your Hotmail or Yahoo! account with a Google Account, you may use that or any non-Gmail address with Mail Merge as well.

Mail Merge with File Attachments – Step by Step

The new version of Gmail Mail Merge program offers support for rich-text (HTML) email templates, you may add file attachments with the outgoing messages, there’s an option to BCC emails to yourself and better overall usability. Let’s get started:

1: Open this Google spreadsheet and create a copy of the same in your Google Docs account (File –> Make a Copy). If you have trouble accessing the sheet, please try this link.

 2: Under the new “Mail Merge” menu, click on “Reset” to clear the canvas and also authorize Google Docs to access your Gmail and Google Contacts.

                                            
3: Open Google Contacts and create a new Group with all the contacts who you would like to send a personalized email. Alternatively, you may simply add the recipient’s name and email addresses manually in the Google Sheet.

 4: Click Mail Merge –> Import Google Contacts and type the name of the Google Contacts group that you created in Step 3. Google Docs will now automatically import all the relevant Gmail contacts into the spreadsheet.

5: Fill the various fields of the email template (highlighted in white).

 You can compose an email template in rich text using the HTML Mail tool and then copy-paste the generated HTML code into the message body field of the Google Sheet.

 If you would like to add an attachment to your email messages – say a PDF file or an Office document – just upload that file to Google Docs and copy-paste the ID of the file into the Attachment ID field. You can find the ID of a Google Docs file in its URL.

6: Go to the Mail Merge menu again and click “Start Mail Merge” – the status against the names of your Gmail contacts will change to “OK” for all email messages that were successfully delivered through Google Docs.

That’s it! You’ve just completed your first mail merge using Gmail and Google Docs.

*Gmail has a daily sending limit and any messages that are dispatched using the Gmail Mail Merge program also count in that limit. You can send a maximum of 500 messages in a day.

If you liked this post don't forget to follow me for more technology based blogs and share it.

If you have any inputs post it in the comments, thank you.

Maze Alpha - the Most Affordable Bezel-Less Smartphone!

Maze Alpha the Most Affordable Bezel-Less Smartphone!

Maze a new smartphone manufacturer has launched the Maze Alpha. The demand for bezel-less phones has made its way to even the most entry level Android devices. Now even if you’re on a budget, you can take part in the bezel-less revolution. Maze Mobile has launched the Maze Alpha at a budget price of around 283$. If you’re looking for a good bezel-less phone that doesn’t break the bank, you’ll definitely want to check this one out.

 

 

Design                                                  

Maze Alpha is a bar shaped phone the edges aren’t much rounded, back side is a bit too glossy for my liking. Maze Alpha is a hefty phone in every way, weighing at 225 grams and measures 8.1mm thick with the IPS LCD screen measures 6 inches. It has a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, and a piece of curved 2.5D Gorilla Glass 4 over the top, with the end result being an 83-percent screen-to-body ratio and a 16:9 aspect ratio.

 

 

Now lets get to the specifications of the phone.

Maze Alpha sports a 6-inch, 1080 x 1920 IPS LCD display covering almost the entirety of its front. The handset supports dual sim and is powered by 2 chipset an octa-core Mediatek Helio P25 powering basic variant and an upper-midrange SoC — clocked at 2.5 GHz, coupled with 4 GB or 6 GB or RAM, and with 64 or 128 GB of on-board storage. The phone packs a 4,000 mAh battery and supports MediaTek's PE+ for fast charging.

 

 

 

 

As for camera it comes with a dual camera configuration, it has a 13 MP main sensor with comparatively small 1.13 μm pixels — made by Samsung, and an assistive sensor with a 5 MP resolution. The latter is used to collect information about depth and lighting, while the 13 MP snapper takes a photo. The main camera has an F2.2 aperture and, unfortunately, lacks an OIS module. So, the camera doesn't sound like it can outperform the best players in the market, but we feel like the phone's design, hardware, and price more than make up for that.

 

Conclusion    

If you are looking for an affordable bezel less smartphone Maze Alpha fits in the budget it comes with a good display and decent specs for the price.

If you want to buy this phone you can with the link

If you liked this post don’t forget to +1, share, subscribe and follow me for more such posts.

If you have any queries or comments kindly post it, thank you.

Microsoft launches KAIZALA designed for large group communications and work management

Kaizala – an app by Microsft with a service designed for large group communications and work management.

Kaizala is an app that is designed to make it easy to connect and coordinate work with your entire value chain, including field employees, vendors, partners, and customers wherever they are. Kaizala helps you efficiently assign and track tasks or collect data with individuals or large groups–even if they’re not within your organization.

 

Organizations in India are becoming more dispersed, and as a result, connectivity with their extended teams and partners is crucial. This is evident across industries, ranging from construction, manufacturing, insurance and healthcare to retail. Microsoft Kaizala helps organizations connect with large numbers of people inside and outside their organization, easily coordinate tasks across the value chain, and gain actionable insights. Microsoft Kaizala users can simply get connected using their mobile phone numbers as their primary unique ID. Microsoft Kaizala is powered by Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s trusted cloud platform. The product is enterprise ready.

“The Digital India initiative is focused on harnessing technology to help India transform. Microsoft Kaizala, a made for India product, brings together the two disparate worlds of mobile only messaging apps and a digitally integrated modern workplace. The product will make it possible for organizations to interact with everyone both within and outside, seamlessly and with rich content. Microsoft Kaizala has been optimized for 2G networks to enable connectivity in remote locations and offers features with offline support.” said Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India.

 

“Using Microsoft Kaizala, organizations can connect with their employees and the extended value chain. The product offers a simple and familiar chat interface and goes beyond to make everyone more productive using Surveys, Polls, Jobs, Meetings and other actions, right in your chats. As we launch Microsoft Kaizala in India, we hope to help connect the unconnected parts of organizations – whether they are in large and small enterprises or in the Government. Microsoft Kaizala’s vision is to empower every organization and community to achieve more through purposeful chat”, added Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.

Microsoft Kaizala has seen significant adoption among Indian organizations such as YES Bank, Apollo Telemedicine, Republic TV, United Phosphorous Limited and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, who are currently piloting the solution for their internal teams.  In addition, the Government of Andhra Pradesh is one of the first government organizations to use Microsoft Kaizala for real time governance. More than 30 government departments and over 70,000 users in the State Government use Microsoft Kaizala for day-to-day work.

Microsoft Kaizala Pro has additional features that include user and group management, system integration and automation using Microsoft Kaizala APIs, advanced reporting and analytics, ability to publish custom actions, ability to create public groups, and organizational profile and directory.

Starting today, Microsoft Kaizala is available in India as a free download on iOS and Android phones. Microsoft Kaizala Pro is available to purchase standalone at a list price of INR 130 per user per month. Current Office 365 customers should contact their Microsoft representative for additional information.

In case you want to download click the link     

If you like this post don't forget to +1, subscribe and follow me for more such posts.
If you have any queries or comments kindly post it in the comment section, thank you 

 

WAZE navigation app supporting Android auto has started to roll out, let's review it.

After 2 months of testing of WAZE on android auto it has started rolling out in Google play. The feature once promised at I/O 2016 is now here. With Waze avoiding bad traffic just became much easier.

 You don't have to do anything too crazy to set things up, either. If you have Waze installed on your Android phone, all you need to do is download the update, connect it to your CAR, select the Navigation App icon, and Waze will either launch (if it was the last application used for navigation), or you can tap Navigation again to bring up a menu to access other applications. Once you are in Waze, you can select favorite locations via the menu, or manually enter an address, and you are off.

 It even supports voice commands. So if you say "OK Google, drive to work," Waze can open and begin the navigation process to that destination. And all the crowd-sourced traffic data will be there to help with your next commute.

Waze isn't the first navigation app to make its way to Android Auto-connected dashboards. The automotive platform launched back in 2015 with Google Maps built in, but this is the first chance for drivers who prefer Waze to use their favorite app after a long wait. Google has owned the company since 2013, and first teased a Waze integration for Android Auto in 2015. That delay, to some degree, comes from the challenge of translating the app's experience from the phone to the dashboard.

"It was a big challenge and took quite a while to get the design for this implementation," Waze Product Lead Jens Baron”. Android Auto is a framework that has to be approved for all kinds of driver distraction guidelines around the globe. The Android Auto variant responds just as well to course corrections and rerouting as the phone app does, firing off voice prompts as necessary. That said, the inability to change the voice behind the prompts may disappoint some owners—during my 24 hours of testing, I couldn't find anything to indicate that this popular feature was coming to Android Auto. Here's hoping that changes in a future version, because navigation is far more enjoyable when Jedi Master Yoda or Mr. T is directing you.

But it's the crowd-sourcing of information—from construction, to road hazards, to police speed traps—remains Waze's calling card, and it's flawless in Android Auto. While the system won't read out warnings unless it's actively routing the driver to a destination, tapping around the screen to inspect the different warnings left by other users is easy.

Plug in a route, though, and the system really shines, issuing audio warnings around half a mile before they arrive. That might not be enough time to get on the stoppers before a cop can hit you with the radar, but it's still enough of a warning to avoid road debris, disabled vehicles, or other hazards that can't write speeding tickets. The warnings can be confirmed through “like” or dispute the warning—if there really is a cop up ahead, simply tap the thumbs up icon on the warning.

Some features still aren't fully functional at launch, though; for now, you can only use voice commands to tell Waze to lead you to a specific address or pre-programmed "Home" or "Work" destination. Waze says voice will eventually be expanded, adding the ability to report hazards and more in the future.

The mobile app's social features like carpool, "beep beep," gas price tracking, and map chat will also be included in Auto-specific updates, along with the Waze speedometer, the exclusion of which elicited "strong feedback" from the company's pool of 5,000 beta testers according to Baron. He said there's no set schedule for the updates, but it's "something we’re looking to introduce very quickly." 

I checked out the integrated Google Maps feature too, to really compare how Waze stacked up. My route with Google Maps was noticeably smoother than the Waze navigation, with no lag whatsoever and more clearly marked merge directions. Part of that superiority came from the cleaner interface, which is less cluttered than Waze — but it's the realtime alerts and driver interaction that make the app so popular in the first place, drawing in 65 million monthly active users across the globe.

The Android Auto integration brings a slightly stripped-down version of Waze to dashboards, but that in itself doesn't make it an inferior product, especially with updates on the way. Just like the mobile versions of the maps, what you should use really comes down to personal preference — you'll still get directions to where you need to go.

If you want to download click the link.

If you liked this post don’t forget to follow me for more such content and share it.

If you have any inputs or queries kindly post it in the comments, thank you

Forgot your Wi-fi password? you are just a command away from retrieving it on windows or mac

How to Find the Wi-Fi Password of your Current Network

If you’ve connected to a Wi-Fi network, your computer usually saves that password so you don’t have to enter it in every time. But sometimes you forget the password and if you need to connect a second device, like your mobile phone to the same WiFi network then you will not be able to connect. In such a situation how do you find out the password?

If you are the administrator it is very simple all you need to do is to open the command prompt on your computer and retrieve the saved password in one easy step. To figure out all you need to do is enter in a simple command in the command line. The technique works on both Mac and Windows PCs.

Revealing a Wi-Fi password is a slightly different on Windows and Mac.

In Windows, you need to open up a command prompt in administrator mode. Then enter this command, substituting your Wi-Fi network name in for “labnol”:

netsh wlan show profile name=labnol key=clear | findstr Key         

 

In Mac OS X, open up Terminal, and enter in this command, substituting “labnol” for your Wi-Fi network name:

security find-generic-password -ga labnol | grep password

 

 

In case you want to know more methods of obtaining your lost Wi-Fi password you can refer to the Techworm blog on the same

If you liked this post don’t forget to follow me for more such content and share it.

If you have any inputs or queries kindly post it in the comments, thank you.

 

 

Niantic is finally preparing to unleash Legendary Pokemon into the real world

Just over a year after launching Pokemon Go, developer Niantic is finally preparing to unleash Legendary Pokemon into the real world.

This Tuesday, the Pokemon Go team published a blog post announcing a new update for the game, which is set to roll out this week. The details weren’t all that exciting, but as always, the Pokemon Go community was quick to tear the update apart to see what was inside.

 

 

What they found will have fans of the game as excited as they’ve been since Generation 2 arrived.

According to The Silph Road’s datamine of the 0.69.0 APK, Legendaries should arrive during or shortly after the Pokemon Go Fest set to take place in Chicago this Saturday.

A line of code in the update (“IsLegendaryOrMythic”) suggests that Pokemon Go can now distinguish between Legendary Pokemon (like Zapdos) and Mythical Pokemon (like Mew). Niantic has also added a warning message for players who try to transfer a Legendary Pokemon, an error message for players who try to drop their Legendaries at a gym and a new check to see if a Raid Boss is a Legendary.

New image assets have appeared in the code as well, including a Exclusive Raid Pass, a Legendary Raid icon featuring Lugia and a Lugia banner to mark a gym where a Legendary Raid has been won.

This doesn’t guarantee that the Mystery Challenge or “major global reward” referred to in the Go Fest infographic will be Legendary Raids, but with all of the code supporting Legendary Pokemon, it’s only a matter of time before some of the super rare creatures begin to make their way into the game.

In addition to the Legendary hints, the update also adds a QR code scanner, a special event badge for players who attend the Go Fest and some minor fixes for the health bar and heal animations.

 

Finally, here’s the complete official change log for the update from Niantic:

•Added icons to the Pokémon information screen to indicate how the Pokémon was caught.

•Added the ability for Trainers to spin the Photo Disc at a Gym after completing a Raid Battle.

•Added the ability for Trainers to send Berries to their Pokémon defending Gyms through the Pokémon info screen when they are not nearby. Motivation regained will be less effective through this method.

•Added the ability for Trainers to give Berries to Pokémon defending Gyms if their motivation meter is full.

•Improved Pokémon Collection screen search functionality.

•Fixed an issue where Trainers were unable to complete Raid Battles started before time expired on the map view.

•Fixed an issue where Pokémon are not properly returned to their Trainer after defending a Gym.

•Various bug fixes.

Here's how it will likely go down. After a series of limited time events during Pokémon GO Fest, players will theoretically unlock a new "mystery challenge" during the event. This will give the players in Chicago the opportunity to battle in their first Legendary Raids: with such a high concentration of top-level players, they're bound to go down pretty quickly. After that, success in those raids will unlock Legendary Raids for players worldwide. It seems that Legendary Raid Passes will also be handled differently than normal Raid Passes, but it isn't yet clear how that will work.

If you liked this post don't forget to share it and for more such contents follow me.
In case you have any inputs queries post it in comments.

Google Adds Emergency Location Feature to its Phone App for Android Users

Google Adds Emergency Location Feature to its Phone App for Android Users

Google has added a new safety feature that will help people in case of emergency. Google has added “Emergency Location Feature” to Phone App of Android Users. This is a very useful feature when you call an emergency number like 911, a location card will now appear on your screen containing necessary information. This information will include your current address along with a small map as well as your exact coordinates which will help in getting the location for the emergency service provider.

 This feature will helpful in a case when you get injured and need help, but don’t know exactly where you are. Thus when you make emergency call all essential location info will pop up which you can provide it to the emergency service provider on your exact location.

 

The new update has a very nifty feature for when you are in a jam — if you happen to be calling 911 (or whatever the emergency number for your current country is), your phone will give you a very useful card, showing you your current location by address, coordinates, and also a Google Maps pin.

After all, if you happen to witness a horrible road accident, your first reaction would be to call 911(or other emergency nos according to your location), not check Google Maps for your exact location. Good on Google for adding such a useful and potentially life-saving feature to improve coordination between emergency callers and staff. The irony is not lost on us that this update happens to come on the heels of OnePlus 5 users discovering that dialing 911 causes their own phones to crash.

 Along with this feature, the latest Phone update brings call waiting improvements and other bug fixes that should improve performance and stability. Currently, this update is available on Pixel, Nexus, Android One, or Google Play Edition smartphone.

Currently, this feature is available only for Android users. You can download the app from Google Play Store. Phone

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en

If you liked this post don't forget to follow me for more technology based blogs and share it.

If you have any inputs post it in the comments, thank you.

 

 

Google has officially started killing “Google Now”

Today Google has officially started killing “Google Now”  however it’s not getting rid of the functionality. Last December Google introduced a new “feed experience” as part of Google Now, which featured topics in one tab and a second tab for personal information and updates, such as travel plans and meetings. In the rollout today, (Google app for Android and iOS) that two-tab structure is preserved, but the feed is becoming richer and more controllable. Google, the world's largest search engine and a unit of Alphabet Inc, said the changes would begin rolling out in the United States on Wednesday and other countries in the coming weeks.

 

The new offering is called "Google Feed," a name that may conjure comparisons to Facebook's "News Feed," a feature on Facebook used to browse updates from friends, family and other sources. It is rolling out its take on news feed which is a personalized stream of articles, videos, and various other content. The feed items are drawn from your search history and topics you choose to follow, is designed to turn Google’s app into a destination for browsing as well as search. Google is hoping you’ll or check it throughout the day for quick hits of news and information.

 

Google previewed its new feed in December, when it introduced the feature to its Android app.

With the introduction of the feed, the Google Now brand is going away, and the updates it used to contain are moving to a secondary tab called updates to your interests. In a demo at Google’s offices in San Francisco on Tuesday, a product manager’s feed included articles about the Oakland Athletics, a trending article about the Tour de France, and a 10-month old blog post about a classical musician who she had previously seen in concert.

 

In most feeds, a 10-month-old blog post would appear stale and unwelcome. Google says it’s a sign of the company’s strengths — it can reach into the long tail of articles on the web, and surface them to audiences that missed them the first time around whereas Facebook and Twitter give priority to latest updates;

You can customize the feed by tapping the three dots on top of each card. From there you can follow a subject or share the item on other social networks. You can also tell Google you’re “done with this story” and avoid seeing future updates, or tell it you don’t want to see any more articles from a particular publisher. You can’t follow individual publishers today, but publishers will surely clamor for it, and Google told me it will consider adding that feature eventually.

For now, Google says there won’t be ads in the feed, although I imagine it would love to put them there eventually. Google is an ad business and it’s running out of places to put new ads on m

But with each passing year, we have had fewer reasons to open the Google app. Native apps from Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and others command more of our attention, making us less likely to begin our queries at the search bar. More recently, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have been built into our device hardware, allowing us to bypass Google and search with our voice.

Viewed in that light, a Google feed was all but inevitable. Google has very successfully transitioned to mobile, which wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Now it wants to give users more reasons to check-in daily and new pathways into search. It’s not clear how widely Now was being used by the bulk of Google’s mobile audience.

While it may not seem like a huge update — depending on how much you use the Google app, you may not even notice the new feed at first (it will also be available on Pixel phones via the Pixel launcher) — Google clearly has big plans for the feature.

Beyond the mobile app experience, Google said that it would be bringing the feed to the desktop version of the Chrome in the near future, though it didn’t show that off. I’m imagining it as the reincarnation of iGoogle, a personalized start page that was shuttered in 2012 — the same year Now was introduced. The question is how quickly Google can improve it — and whether its users, whose lives are already dominated by feeds, will make room for another one.

 

 

If you liked this post don't forget to follow me and share it.

If you have any inputs post it in the comments, thank you.

Oxygen OS- Best features you may not know

Oxygen OS offers plenty of customization options and many features most of us are not aware of.

Oxygen OS is one of the best implementations of Android currently available in the market and I am coming from a nexus device to oneplus 3 was a breeze since it provided customization to suit me. OnePlus adding a few useful features on top of a near-stock user interface makes it the fastest OS in the market which isn’t just fluidic but also has bunch of useful customizations. While you may not be able to change entire elements of the UI, there are several customization options available to make the device stand out.

Night mode

Blue light emitted by phones when used at night time will interfere with our sleeping pattern. Night Mode activates a blue light filter that reduces fatigue when viewing the screen at night. The feature debuted last year with OnePlus 3, but on the OnePlus 5 you can set it to automatically engage from sunset to sunrise, or select a custom time range.

 

The feature works by changing color temperature of display by giving the panel a yellowish tint that eliminates blue hues. While the screen no longer shows accurate colors, it does reduce the strain on your eyes, particularly if you're interacting with your phone a lot at night.

Oxygen OS also allows you to set the intensity of the effect — you can choose to eliminate blue tones completely, or select a setting that doesn't alter the color temperature of the screen too much.

 

Reading mode

Eventhough we can read books on our smartphones but the lighting and ease of reading is often difficult via smartphone which can be overcome to an extent from the reading Mode feature introduced with the OnePlus 5. Like Night Mode, the feature automatically calibrates the color temperature of the display making it conducive to reading.

 

Instead of switching to warmer colors, Reading Mode creates a monochrome effect that's great for reading text. You can activate the mode manually or set it to automatically launch for specific apps. For instance, if you have the Kindle app installed on your OnePlus 5, you can enable Reading Mode to launch automatically whenever you open the app, leaving the rest of the user interface unchanged.

Gestures

Oxygen OS offers a wide range of gestures which make it easier to interact with phone. The three-finger screenshot gesture allows you to take a screenshot just by swiping down anywhere on the screen with three fingers. You also have double tap to wake the screen and the ability to control music playback — two-finger swipe down for play/pause and <,> symbols to move forward or back in a playlist.

 

There's also the option to launch the camera by drawing an O, and toggle the flashlight with a V gesture. These gestures are predetermined on the OnePlus 3 & 3T, but you can customize actions for up to five gestures on the OnePlus 5, including launching an app, opening the front camera, accessing the Shelf, and as you wish. These gestures provide you an ability to customize your phone as per your requirements.

Tweak the audio

The OnePlus 5 takes full advantage of the Snapdragon 835 chipset, and that includes a Bluetooth 5.0 chip and the aptX HD audio codec. You'll be able to switch between aptX HD, aptX, and the default SBC codec.

 

The Qualcomm-owned aptX HD codec is designed to deliver high-res audio over Bluetooth. Launched at the beginning of 2016, aptX HD supports 24-bit/48kHz audio, and while it still uses a lossy compression, you get a higher bandwidth of 576kbps. The standard aptX codec, which was first developed in the 1980s, has a maximum bandwidth of 352kbps.

To get the most out of aptX HD, you'll need to have a compatible audio product that also features the codec. Right now, that's a short list — only the LG Tone Platinum, Tone Active+, Audio-Technica's high-end ATH-DSR9BT, mid-range ATH-DSR7BT, and the $1,000 Beyerdynamic Xelento offer the codec.

While the OnePlus 5 comes with the aptX HD codec, the OnePlus 3 and 3T feature aptX. However, all three phones offer an audio tuner that lets you tweak the equalizer settings according to your tastes.

LED notifications

Oxygen OS allows you to customize the LED notification light for various actions. There's the option to select from eight colors for default notifications, battery full indicator, battery charging, and battery low. You can also select which apps trigger the LED notification light.

 

 

As we're on the subject of notifications, the OnePlus 5 has a new vibration motor that lets you choose from five custom patterns for incoming calls. If nothing else, you should take a look just to see the text labels — the default is dzzz-dzzz, but I prefer mm-mm-mm. You can also adjust the vibration intensity for calls and notifications

Gaming – do not disturb

It is often irritating when you get notifications while playing games, to overcome this oneplus has provided the OnePlus 5 doesn't have a Do Not Disturb mode for notifications (you'll have to manually toggle the Alert Slider every night), but it does have one for when you're gaming.

 

It does what you'd expect — activating Gaming Do Not Disturb silences all incoming notifications with the exception of calls and alarms. The mode also locks the capacitive keys, preventing you from exiting a game should you accidentally hit one of the navigation keys. If you don't want to lock the navigation keys, you can turn off the setting. You can set the mode to launch automatically when a particular app is nothing opened.

Navigation buttons

Different branded phones come up with navigation buttons differently in their phones and most of us are used to a particular way. When you change your phone it becomes a pain to get accustomed to these navigation buttons and to overcome this oneplus added a nifty feature in OxygenOS is the ability to choose between capacitive or on-screen navigation keys. If you're going with the hardware keys, there's a toggle to turn off the backlight. The default layout of the buttons is back, home, and recents, but you can switch the back and recents buttons if you're coming from a Samsung phone and want to have the back button to the left of the home key. The customizations are valid both for the hardware keys as well as the on-screen buttons.

 

Alongside the ability to change the order of the buttons, you can also assign long press and double tap actions to each button. You can select from a variety of actions, including opening the camera, turning off the screen, opening or closing the notification shade, accessing split-screen mode, and much more.

If you liked this post don't forget to follow me and share it. 
If you have any inputs post it in the comments, thank you.