Auto-rotate on Android is useful, but sometimes you need to keep certain apps fixed in portrait or landscape mode. Here’s how to do it.
The auto-rotate feature in Android automatically changes the screen orientation based on how you hold your phone.
This can be good for quickly switching from portrait to landscape mode, perhaps to watch a YouTube video in full screen. However, if you then go to Twitter and accidentally tilt your phone too far to the side, you may find yourself tilting it back and forth to reset the screen orientation to portrait.
Rotation Control Pro allows you to manage individual screen orientation settings for all your apps. This means you can lock Twitter vertically, force Instagram horizontally, and allow YouTube to freely switch between the two.
How to install and use rotation control on your Android device
Whether you want to disable screen rotation for some selected apps or enable rotation for apps that normally don’t allow it, Rotation Control Pro can do just that.
Rather than just being a constant overlay or app you need to open every time you want to reorient your screen, Rotation Control Pro lets you automate screen rotation settings for each individual app. The app costs $2.99 on Google Play, but a free trial version can be downloaded and used for two days to verify that it works for your needs.
Discharge: Rotation Control (Free Trial) | Rotation Control Pro ($2.99)
- After installing the app, you will be prompted to enable various permissions. This is just so Rotation Control can be notified when an app starts and can be displayed on top of other apps.
- In the menu, make sure rotation control Y Settings per app are enabled. By default, they should be.
- Play Rotation settings per appchoose the apps whose settings you want to modify, and then change their settings.
You can lock specific apps in landscape or portrait mode. You can also keep them in auto-rotate mode, or just have them follow whatever rotation settings you have enabled on your device. Whether you have auto-rotation enabled or disabled, you can specify any app’s rotation preferences.
On YouTube or Twitter, you can lock the orientation in portrait mode. Instagram can’t be viewed in landscape mode by conventional means, but Rotation Control Pro allows it, and it does so seamlessly.
You may notice a notification labeled “useless notification”. The app itself urges you to disable rotation control notifications as they are considered placeholders and serve no purpose.
If you’re looking to further tweak your phone’s UI and settings, you can do so by accessing Android’s hidden system UI tuner.
Enjoy the simplicity of Rotation Control Pro
Rotation Control Pro adds a great new layer of customization to your Android device, and it does it quite well. It wouldn’t hurt to try the Rotation Control trial if you want or need more control over your device’s orientation settings, and would like to see if this is the app for you.
Fortunately, if rotation control isn’t enough to enhance and personalize your user experience, there are plenty of Android apps that will change the way you use your phone.
