Quick Settings on Fire tablets lets you enable or disable some features instantly without going through the Settings app.
This Fire tablet how-to guide explains what the Quick Settings on Fire tablets is, how to access the Quick Settings panel on a Fire tablet, the differences in Quick Settings among Fire OS 5, Fire OS 7, and Fire OS 8, and how to use and customize the Quick Setting buttons.
Although the illustration and screenshots are based on Fire OS 8, this guide applies to most Fire tablets.
What is Quick Settings on Fire tablets?
Quick Settings on Fire tablets is simply a special panel which lets you turn on/off some frequently used features without fiddling around the Settings.
For example, if you want to turn on (or off) Bluetooth on a Fire tablet without Quick Settings, you need 5 steps.
- Navigate to the Home screen (you may have to leave the app you are using).
- Locate the Settings app.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Connected devices.
- Tap Bluetooth
With Quick Settings on Fire tablets, it will take you two steps to turn on/off Bluetooth:
- Without leaving the app you are using, swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers.
- Tap the Bluetooth button.
So, it is a matter of “efficiency” if you can use Quick Settings on Fire tablets. The Quick Settings is even available when you are on the lock screen.
Like all other Android devices (although Amazon tried hard to hide “Android” in Fire tablets), all Fire tablets offer the Quick Settings feature. So, if you are also an Android user, you will find it is almost identical to the Quick Settings on your Android devices.
In a few versions of Android (Fire OS), some system features without dedicated apps may be added to the quick settings. For example, in Fire OS 8, the Screen Record feature can only be accessed from Quick Settings. There is no app for it.
How to access Quick Settings on Fire tablets?
There are two gestures for you to access Quick Settings on Fire tablets.
- Swipe down twice from the top of the screen.
- Swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen.
As mentioned earlier, you do NOT need to leave or exit the app you are using when accessing the Quick Settings panel.
Gesture 1: Swipe down twice from the top of the screen
From the top of the screen, if you swipe down once, you are in the notification panel. You can then swipe again to access the Quick Settings panel.
On Fire OS 5 (and older), the Quick Settings panel is always an integrated part of the notification panel. So, on Fire tablets with Fire OS 5, you just need to swipe down once. Swiping down again does not change anything.
Since Fire OS 6 (Android Nougat), there is a “short version” (collapsed version) of the quick settings buttons on the top of the notification panel. You must swipe down again in the notification panel to access the Quick Settings Panel on the Fire tablet.
Gesture 2: Swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen
Instead of swiping twice, you can swipe down once with two fingers from the top of the screen to access the Quick Settings on Fire tablets without going through the notification panel.
Of course, for Fire tablets with Fire OS 5, the two-finger swipe gesture is still registered as a single-finger swipe. You will be directed to the notification panel, which includes the quick settings panel.
Differences in Quick Settings among Fire OS 5, Fire OS 6, Fire OS 7, and Fire OS 8
The Quick Settings panel changes over different versions of Fire OS, roughly following the changes in the corresponding Android versions.
In Fire OS 5, the Quick Settings are integrated into the notification panel, as shown in the screenshot below.
In Fire OS 6, Fire OS 7, and Fire OS 8, the Quick Settings on Fire tablets is almost identical.
In the notification panel, Quick Settings is collapsed into one row, as shown in the screenshot below. Only the first 6 buttons (together with the brightness adjustment bar) are shown in this row.
You need to swipe down from the notification panel to access the “full” Quick Settings panel.
The difference among the Quick Settings in Fire OS 6, Fire OS 7, and Fire OS 8 is mainly in the available Quick Settings buttons.
The layout of the Quick Settings panel on Fire tablets
As shown in the screenshot below, there are 9 items on the Quick Settings panel:
- Tablet name.
- Status icons.
- Brightness adjustment bar.
- Quick Setting buttons.
- Panel indicator (Fire OS 8 only).
- Edit button (Fire OS 8 only).
- User profile button.
- Shortcut to help files.
- Gear button (shortcut to tablet Settings).
We now go through them one by one.
Tablet name
This field displays the name of the tablet.
You can rename your Fire tablet in Settings — Device options — Change your device name.
Status icons
Because you may access the Quick Settings panel in the immersive full-screen mode (without the status bar and navigation bar), the status icons let you know the icons in the status bar.
Besides, the Quick Settings panel is overlayed on the current screen. So, the status bar is always blocked even if you are not in full-screen mode.
Brightness adjustment bar
You can use the slider to adjust the brightness of the screen quickly.
Otherwise, without using the Quick Settings on Fire tablets, you have to adjust the brightness from Settings — Display — Brightness level.
Each Quick Setting button represents one feature that can be turned on or off from the Quick Settings panel.
We will explain the usage of these buttons in the next section.
Panel indicator (Fire OS 8 only)
In Fire OS 5, Fire OS 6, and Fire OS 7, the number of the total quick setting buttons are fixed at 8. And these buttons are always in one panel.
In Fire OS 8, you can customize the Quick Settings buttons. You may remove or add some buttons in the Quick Settings panel. So, you need multiple panels to host these buttons.
The panel indicator tells you:
- The number of panels for the Quick Setting buttons.
- The relative location of the current panel.
You can swipe left or right to navigate to other panels to use other Quick Settings buttons on your Fire tablet.
On Fire OS 8, you can tap the Edit button to enter the edit mode of the Quick Settings panel.
You can customize the Quick Settings on Fire tablets. Read on.
The user profile button lets you check the current user profile. You can also use it to quickly switch the user profile.
So, it is very useful if the tablet is shared by your family members.
Shortcut to help files
You can tap this button to launch the help file (user manual).
Unfortunately, only the online version of the help file is available. It is not stored locally. So, you need an internet connection to access them.
You may tap the gear button to launch the Settings app.
The quick settings buttons accept two tap gestures:
- Tap.
- Long tap (Fire OS 6, Fire OS 7, and Fire OS 8).
Of course, the functions of these two gestures are different.
Tap to turn on/off the feature
If you tap a Quick Settings button, e.g., Bluetoothbuton, Bluetooth will be turned on if it is currently off.
If Bluetooth is currently on, it will be turned off if you tap the button.
The button also changes to indicate the current status (on or off).
Long tap to access Quick Settings for the feature (Fire OS 6, Fire 7, and Fire OS 8 only)
On Fire OS 6, Fire OS 7, and Fire OS 8, you can tap and hold (long tap) the Quick Settings button to access the so-called Quick Settings page. However, in Fire OS 5, Fire tablets do not respond (nothing happens) to the long tap gesture.
For example, as shown in the screenshot below, if you tap and hold (long tap) the Dark Theme button, it will not disable the dark theme.
Instead, the corresponding Settings page for Dark Theme will be opened, as shown in the screenshot below.
The identical page can be accessed from Settings — Display — Dark Theme.
If you tap the < button, as shown in the screenshot, it will actually navigate to the Settings page. This indicates this page is actually a sub-page of the Settings app.
However, if you use the Back button in the navigation bar, it will simply close this page (and the Quick Settings panel).
For Quick Settings buttons that do not have a corresponding Settings page in the Settings app, if you tap and hold them, two possible outcomes:
- No response (nothing happens). For example, in Fire OS 8, if you tap and hold the Screen Record Start button in the Quick Settings panel, the tablet will not respond to it at all.
- Open the app if there is an app corresponding to it. For example, if you tap and hold the Camera button in Quick Settings on Fire tablets with Fire OS 6, 7, or 8, the Camera app will be open.
In Fire OS 8, third-party apps can also add quick setting buttons to the panel. These apps surely do not have corresponding pages in the Settings app. So, the long tap gesture for these quick setting buttons usually opens the app (identical to that of the single tap gesture).
How to customize Quick Settings on Fire tablets (Fire OS 8 only)?
As mentioned, Quick Settings on Fire tablets with Fire OS 5, Fire OS 6, and Fire OS 7 are fixed. You cannot tweak any aspects of the feature.
But in Fire OS 8, you can add, relocate, and remove any Quick Setting buttons based on your preference.
As shown earlier, you can tap the Edit button (6) to enter the Edit mode, as shown in the screenshot below. In the Edit mode, you can then customize Quick Settings.
There are three sections in the Edit mode for Quick Settings:
- Menu. You can use it to reset the button layout.
- Active buttons. These buttons are currently used as Quick Setting buttons. You can relocate the buttons or remove them from the Quick Settings panel.
- Inactive buttons. These buttons are available but not used as Quick Setting buttons. You can add them to the active buttons section.
You may want to rearrange the Quick Setting buttons so that the most frequently used one is located among the first 6 spots so that you can access them without navigating to the second or third panel.
In addition, the first 6 buttons are also accessible when the Quick Settings panel is collapsed in the notification panel.
To relocate a Quick Settings button, tap and hold the button, then drag it to the desired spot, as shown in the animation below. Once in the desired spot, you can then release your finger from the screen to drop it there.
Similarly, you can remove a Quick Settings button by dragging it to the inactive buttons area (bottom part). Once you release your finger from the screen, the button will be removed from the active buttons section and appears in the inactive buttons section.
To add a Quick Settings button, you just need to drag it from the inactive buttons section to the active buttons section.
Some third-party apps may include Quick Settings buttons. Once the app is installed, you can then find the button in the inactive buttons area.
Can you use and customize Quick Settings on Fire tablets now?
If you have any questions about Quick Settings on Fire tablets or encounter any issues with the Quick Settings, please let us know in the comment box below. The community will help you.
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