11 Settings Every Nintendo Switch User Should Know

Main points

• Nintendo Switch owners should read our guide for top tips and tricks for mastering the handheld console.
• For example, they can easily access quick settings by holding down the home button to make quick adjustments like screen brightness and volume.
• Other tips include enabling Dark Mode for a more relaxing gaming experience, and switching between Vivid and Standard color options on the OLED Switch.

If you recently got your first Switch, or you’re a seasoned veteran, there’s a good chance you’ll want to get the most out of Nintendo’s console. This guide will take you through all of the handheld’s most noteworthy settings, explaining what they do and how to enable them. With a few exceptions, all the options mentioned below are accessible from the System Settings menu, which you can find on the home screen.

1 Get familiar with quick settings

Press and hold the Switch Home button

While it’s not technically a setting per se, Quick Setup The menu provides a convenient way to access the options you may want to adjust most often without having to delve into the switch’s system settings.

You can open quick settings by holding down the switch Home button for a few seconds. From here, you can turn the console’s auto-brightness and airplane mode features on or off, as well as adjust screen brightness and volume and put the Switch to sleep. It’s also a convenient way to check the time and remaining battery life on your system without leaving the game.

Regarding battery life, you can more easily estimate how much gaming time you have left by looking at your Switch’s remaining battery power, expressed as a percentage.To do this, press and hold ZL and ZR Press buttons simultaneously Quick Setup The menu opens.Alternatively, you can open System settings Menu and enable Console battery (%) under system part.

ZL and ZR shortcuts are also available on the home screen.

2 Use dark mode to protect your eyes

Basic black

Like many other modern devices and apps, the Nintendo Switch offers a Dark Mode setting that darkens interface elements to make them easier on the eyes. Unfortunately, it’s not a true dark mode, which takes advantage of the properties of an OLED screen to reduce battery consumption, but if you find the Switch’s default theme to have a retina-burning feel, what’s available is a great option. To enable dark mode:

1. Open System settings menu.
2. scroll down to theme part.
3. choose Basic black.

3 Get more natural colors on OLED Switch

Vivid and standard

The OLED Switch is one of the best displays to ever grace a gaming handheld. It delivers excellent motion clarity and contrast. However, OLED screens can look oversaturated out of the box. Thankfully, if you don’t like the look, the console offers two different color modes. Here’s how to switch between them:

1. Open System settings menu.
2. scroll down to system part.
3. tap Console screen color.
4. choose vivid or standarddepending on your preference.

4 Pair Bluetooth headphones with Switch

Or pair speakers

It took Nintendo a long time to add Bluetooth audio support, and there are some obvious limitations. For example, when you connect a Bluetooth audio device to the Switch, only two controllers can be used, and the Bluetooth microphone input is unavailable. To pair a Bluetooth device with your Switch:

1. Open System settings menu.
2. scroll down to Bluetooth audio part.
3. choose Pairing devices.
4. Enable Bluetooth pairing mode on the device you want to connect to.

In addition to using Bluetooth headphones with the Switch, you can also pair Bluetooth speakers. The latter is handy if you often find yourself using the console in tablet mode.

5 protect your hearing

Or your child’s hearing

On the audio front, if you want to protect your own or a young person’s hearing, the Switch offers a useful setting that, when enabled, will automatically limit the maximum output volume of any headphones connected to the Switch.To enable protection, turn on System settings menu, scroll down to system part and enabled Lower the maximum headphone volume.

In the same section, you’ll also find an option to prompt the Switch to automatically mute the sound when you disconnect your headphones. This setting—— Headphones mute when disconnected — should be enabled by default, but if not you can enable it here. It’s useful whenever you find yourself in a public place and want to avoid disturbing those around you.

6 Optimize your storage

Save precious seconds

If you’ve owned a Switch for a while, you’ve likely purchased a microSD card at some point to increase the amount of storage your system has for games, screenshots, and videos. What you might not know is that there’s a way to optimize the way the Switch uses all available storage to reduce loading times.

Digital Foundry’s testing showed that the Switch was always the fastest at loading games from its internal storage, while the handheld took longer to read game data from the microSD card and longer from the shopping cart. In some cases, the difference can mean saving data loading a few seconds earlier. That may not seem like much, but when you consider a game like Kingdom Tears that takes hundreds of hours to complete, those seconds start to add up.

If you primarily buy digital games, my suggestion is to move your favorite games to the Switch’s internal storage. When you’re done with a game, transfer it to your system’s microSD card to free up space on the internal drive for your next game. The specific steps are as follows:

1. Open System settings menu.
2. scroll down to Data management part.
3. choose Move data between systems/microSD cards.
4. choose Move to microSD card or Move to system memory
5. Click the icon of the game whose data you want to move.
6. choose mobile data.
7. Wait for the process to complete and repeat as necessary.

7 Make the most of sleep mode

Extend battery life

Like most portable devices, the Switch has a sleep mode, which is essential for getting the most out of its battery.In fact, there’s an entire section System settings A menu dedicated to customizing how the mode works. Notably, you can adjust the time before the console goes to sleep, whether it’s connected to a TV or playing games in portable mode.

There is also an option to disable sleep mode from automatically activating when playing media content.I suggest leaving Keep internet connected in sleep mode The setting is enabled as this allows you to start eShop downloads from your computer or mobile device, rather than downloading directly from the Switch, as Nintendo’s digital marketplace can be very slow.

8 Allow your Switch to turn on the TV

Works wirelessly

If you often play games on your TV, the Switch can turn it on or switch it to the right input for you.Plus, this feature works wirelessly, so you can just press Home Buttons on the Joy-Con or Pro controller.This feature is enabled by default, so if you want to turn it off, you can disable it by Match TV power status Options found under TV settings part System settings.

9 Remap your controller

Is there no remapping in the game?no problem

If your favorite game doesn’t support controller remapping, you can still reconfigure the button layout of your Joy-Con or Switch Pro controller to better suit your needs.Go to Controllers and sensors part System settings menu and select Change button mapping. In addition to remapping any individual input on a Nintendo controller, you can also swap the left and right analog sticks. Please note that any changes you make will affect all of your games.

10 Control who can see your playtime

Who can see your game activity?

If you’ve ever wondered how long you’ve been playing a particular game, you don’t have to wait until Nintendo’s annual Switch year in review to find out. Your playtime is recorded on your player profile, which you can access by selecting your profile picture in the upper right corner of your home screen. To adjust who can see your game activity:

1. Open System settings menu.
2. scroll down to user part.
3. Select your profile.
4. tap Play activity settings.
5. choose Show game activity:followed by All users, friends, best friendor nobody Limit who can see your history.
6. Or click Delete playback activity Delete your history.

11 make things bigger

enlarge

For visually impaired users, Nintendo offers a zoom feature that can enlarge small text and interface elements.You can enable it from system part System settings menu.After opening, double-click Home button to activate the function, then press X Magnify part of the screen or yes Zoom out.You can also press Home button once.