When Google launched Android 11 in September, one of the features that got me excited was the revamped power menu. It brought all the necessary controls such as power off, restart and emergency mode to the top and made room to accommodate Google Pay cards and smart home controls in the rest of the box. zoned. However, this hasn’t served any useful purpose for users who aren’t investing in the smart home ecosystem. If you’re looking for a way to customize Android 11’s power menu and add the features you want to use, you’re in luck because there’s an app called “Power Menu Controls” that does just that. .
Customize Android 11 power menu
The power menu commands are a new app from Indian developer Sayantan RC, known for its excellent “Migrate” custom ROM migration tool. In this article, we are going to review the features of this app and how you can use the app on your Android 11 phone.
To note: Power menu commands work with AOSP flavored Android 11 versions. They may not work on OEM versions of Android 11 that have not adopted the Android 11 power menu and instead use a custom implementation.
Permissions to use power menu commands
An amazing aspect of this app is the fact that you can use the app without having root access. For the app to work as expected, you need to allow the following permissions:
- Show on other apps
- Change system settings
Apart from these, the app does not ask for any other unnecessary additional permissions, which is great for those who are worried about privacy.
Configuring Power Menu Controls
1. When you first open the power menu controls, the app will ask for the permissions mentioned above. Tapping on the permission request will take you to the Settings page. Repeat this step to allow both permissions.
2. After granting necessary permissions, enable all the features you need from the app. It should be noted that you can come back at any time and activate more features if necessary.
3. Since you have enabled all the required toggles, it’s time to add the app to the power menu. To do this, long press the power menu, tap the rectangular “Device Controls” button, and choose “Power Menu Controls”. If you are someone who has already added a few apps to the power menu, you will find the app in the “See other apps” section on the same page.
4. The toggles you enabled in step two will appear on this page. You can now further organize the commands you want in the power menu. After choosing all the required features, hit the save button.
5. And that’s it. You’ll see all toggles enabled the next time you long-press the power menu. You can tap the ellipsis button (three vertical dots) to rearrange the position of each tile.
Features of power menu commands
Here are all the features you can enable using the Power Menu Controls app:
- Brightness and auto-brightness toggle
- Media volume, alarm volume, ringer volume toggle
- Total Silence Toggle
- Flashlight
- Rotation lock
- Wake lock
- Screen Sleep
- Battery percentage
Pro tips for maximizing the effectiveness of the Power menu
Now that you’ve learned how to use the app, here’s a pro tip you might miss while using the app. You can long-press any toggle to expand its settings page as an overlay. For example, if you long-press the media volume rocker, you get quick controls to adjust other volume modes.
Another aspect worth mentioning is that you won’t entirely lose access to Google’s smart home controls when using this app. You can quickly switch between Google Home commands and power menu commands from the power menu drop-down list.
Use power menu commands on your Android 11 phone
So this is it. While I think Google should have added this flexibility as a default behavior, I’m glad to see how neat customization apps like power menu controls exist to help Android users get the most out of it. from their Android phones. If you have any feature requests or suggestions for this app, you can drop them in the app’s XDA thread. Also, don’t forget to tell us if you found this app useful in the comments.
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