Android Secret Security Codes You Need to Know

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11 points·billybuckwheat··4 comments

These are not "Android" secret codes. These are a mix of vendor-specific dialer codes.

Every vendor has its own set, and to discover yours the easiest method is to check their engineering app manifests (there is literally an entry called "secret code" or similar).

Having said that, the only one you might really need IMHO is ##4636## (this is an Android one, it's not vendor specific). This code is very useful in csse you want to select a specific RAT that isn't available in the device settings (e.g: NR only, LTE only, NR/LTE, ...)

you can run this codes without unlocking the phone? I tried the imei one and I could access the code with the phone app and the phone locked

AFAIK, no. You shouldn't be able to run any of them when the device is locked. Maybe the IMEI one is an exception - but what these codes usually do is that they start an Android activity: exactly the same as clicking an app icon in the app drawer.

The only difference is that some activities (e.g: Engineering App main activity) aren't supposed to be visible to the average smartphone user as they can have also negative outcomes if used improperly (for example, placing a call to 911 of factory resetting the device)

Huh, I got some old tablets laying around that are locked to long-lostgoogle emails. Wonder if I could dust 'em off and give em a new life with this stuff.

I know there's other paths to doing this, but they involve wires and more time than I'm willing to spend soldering and downloading weird software from people with non-Roman characters in their discord handles.

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