If you’ve purchased a flagship phone from Samsung or Google in the last year you may have noticed a weird little dongle that came included in the box. One end plugs into your phone’s USB charging port, and on the the other end is a female USB-A port. This OTG adapter (short for “on-the-go”) basically makes it possible to plug any USB device into your phone like you would a computer (unless you own a late model MacBook…burn!).

If you’re like most users, you probably threw it away, or stashed it in a closet somewhere and never thought about it again. Well, it’s time to dig out that dongle, because here’s 7 cool things you can do with an OTG adapter!

 

1 – Transfer data to a new phone

This is the most obvious use of an OTG adapter, and ostensibly the reason that manufacturers have begun including them with new phones.

Simply use the adapter to plug one phone to another and a wizard will guide you through copying your photos, text messages, contacts, etc. Pretty convenient considering Android phones don’t have a clean backup and restore mechanism like iPhones do.

 

2 – Transfer files directly from one phone to another

Don’t want to copy everything, but have a few files that you want to move over?

No problem, use file transfer mode to access and copy individual files from one Android device to another.

 

3 – Use a mouse

Here’s where it gets interesting. Did you know that Android has native support for USB mice?

It works exactly like you’d expect, move the mouse cursor around and click to “tap” on the screen. Useful for when you’re docking your phone or casting to a big screen.

 

4 – Use a keyboard

You can use your mouse, so why not a keyboard? This work like you’d expect as well and allows you to type into your phone with a full-size desktop keyboard.

There are even some nifty shortcuts that work in Android such as pressing [cmd]+tab to open the Android app switcher.

 

5 – Use one phone to charge another phone

Yes, you can use an OTG adapter to leech power from one Android device to another.

Why would you want to do this? Consider this; you could turn an old phone into an ad-hoc battery pack. Practical? No. Useful in a pinch? Absolutely.

 

6 – Use a USB game controller

Everyone knows that gaming feels so much better on a proper gamepad. Android comes with USB support for most gamepads including Xbox 360/Xbox One and PS3/PS4.

And yes, I know the PS4 controller (pictured) comes with Bluetooth, which would be a more practical way to pair with your phone, but just go with it.

 

7 – Access a USB flash drive

Last but not least, you can access files directly from a USB flash drive.

This is super handy for accessing, copying or offloading files.