We asked, you told us: Most of you leave auto-rotate disabled

The quick toggle section of the notification shade is one of the more convenient features on a smartphone today, giving you seamless access to a variety of important settings. And auto-rotate is one of the options you’re guaranteed to find in the quick toggle section.

But is auto-rotate (i.e. via the quick toggle or system settings menu) actually used by many people though? Well, we asked Android Authority readers, and here’s how you answered.

Do you use auto-rotate on your smartphone?

Results

We posted the poll on May 7, and it accrued over 4,800 votes as of writing. In posting the poll, we said that we don’t count using the small auto-rotate prompt when turning the device as having auto-rotate enabled. Some phones also have an option to rotate the screen when you’re viewing a picture, but we didn’t count this as having auto-rotate enabled either. We were just looking at having auto-rotate enabled via the quick toggle or via system settings itself.

As it turns out, a grand total of 60.69% of respondents said they don’t actually use auto-rotate on their phones. Judging by the comments, these users prefer the small auto-rotate prompt or third-party apps to using the general auto-rotate option.

Meanwhile, 39.31% of polled readers said they still use auto-rotate on their devices. The comments point to auto-rotate being handy for people who frequently watch videos, view photos, and check out documents.

Comments

• (•̀ᴗ•́)و: Auto rotate is one of the settings I disable when setting up a new phone and remains disabled throughout the life of my phone. The rotate hint that pops at the bottom left of the screen when you hold your phone to landscape is one of the most intuitive thing that was added to Android in recent years. Lol.
• Tennisfreak: I let mine auto rotate, dont see any reason to turn it off. I watch a lot of video on my phone and it would be a total PITA hitting the rotate button all the time. Microsoft Launcher works great with both landscape and portrait orientation so no issues with that either.
• Emmanuel: When Android introduced the smart rotate hint/button, I use that most of the time so that it’s up to me instead of the sensors, which is pretty handy.
• KOLIO: Ultimate Rotation Control (see Google Play Store) for the win, control rotation on a per-app basis.
• Bruce: I use Tasker to have Auto-rotate turn on for certain apps and turn then back off again when done. Works in the background and makes for a seamless experience.
• Debra RightIntwo Boykin: I don’t use auto rotate. Samsung now has the nifty little automatic switch to give you the option when you rotate your phone, so it’s not really needed in my opinion. Most apps that would go full screen and rotate do it automatically too. I find it messes up the flow of whatever I’m doing if I have that setting on.
• TheOracle: Always on. Especially for watching YouTube and reading documents and spreadsheets on the go.
• 2Star Hoodlum: Locked. On my phone, I’m either reading or listening so locked is perfect. If I do, YouTube auto rotates the screen for full screen anyway so that’s not a problem. I usually watch videos on my tablet so I have that on auto rotate.
• Eric Pearson: I don’t know if the feature is on more than just pixel and Samsung phones, but the indicator to rotate is where it’s at.

Thank you for voting in our poll and for leaving comments. How do you think Google and OEMs can improve rotation functionality in the future? Let us know below.