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Samsung has come a long way from its TouchWiz days. Back then, the Android software interface on its older smartphones came with tons of bloatware, an atrocious design, and obfuscated settings. The company turned things around with One UI, the new and improved interface that has been available on its phones since 2018. It's attractive, customizable, and concise.
But that doesn't mean it's perfect. Several helpful settings are turned off by default, and it's not immediately obvious how to turn off a few annoying features. If you've bought a new Samsung phone, here are several key settings to change to make the most of your handset.
Be sure to read our related guides—How to Set Up Your Android Phone, Android Settings You May Not Know About, and How to Back Up Your Android Phone—for more tips.
Updated February 2024: We've refreshed the pathways for these settings and added two new sections on generative wallpapers and Galaxy AI.
Change Your Galaxy Phone's Settings
These settings are applicable for most recent Samsung Galaxy phones, though there may be a few different pathways depending on the model and the software version. Samsung delivers some of the longest software support compared to other Android phone brands, so always make sure your device is up to date by heading to Settings > Software update > Download and install. To adjust your phone's settings, you can find the Settings app in the app drawer or pull down the notification drawer and tap the gear icon in the top right.
Switch to Gesture Navigation
Android introduced a new Gesture navigation system to get around the interface several years ago, but by default Samsung devices still use the traditional three-button navigation system. If that's what you prefer, that's fine! You can skip to our next suggestion. But if you like the gesture feature, here's how to turn it on. Head to Settings > Display > Navigation bar and choose Swipe gestures. You can tweak the sensitivity of the back gesture in More options and toggle on the ability to swipe in from either of the bottom corners to trigger Google Assistant.
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You'll also find Google's Circle to Search function here on supported Samsung devices, and you can turn it on or off. It lets you press and hold the home button (or the pill-shaped bar if you have gesture navigation turned on), and then circle anything on the screen to run a Google Search.
Change the Power Key's Action
I'm of the mind that pressing and holding the Power Key should take your phone directly to the power menu so you can turn it off or restart it. That might not be the case depending on your Samsung phone model—it might default to Bixby, Samsung's voice assistant that everyone most definitely uses. If you want the old-school power settings back, head to Settings > Advanced features > Side button and tap Power off menu for the press-and-hold action. Here, you can also decide whether you want to change the double-press action, which by default launches the camera.
Max Out the Screen Resolution
You just paid hundreds of dollars for a high-end phone, and out of the box, it only has a 1080p (Full HD) screen resolution. Really? Max it out! Upgrade to Wide Quad High Definition+ (WQHD+) by heading to Settings > Display > Screen resolution. Just know that this depends on what Samsung phone model you have (not all support a high resolution) and, yes, this will use up more battery. It's still worth giving it a shot for a day to see whether you can tell the difference and whether it has much impact on your battery life.
I'd also recommend going into the Display settings and playing around with Screen zoom. I usually prefer going to the lowest zoom so I can fit more content on the screen, but this makes text smaller, so you might want to increase it if the screen is hard to read. You can also change the font size if you head back to the display settings page.
Get More Detailed Notifications
On the lock screen, notifications aren't as detailed as on other Android phones. This is easy to change though. Head to Settings > Notifications > Lock screen notifications and tap on Show content. Tap the gear icon to adjust which apps you'd like to see alerts from. I also recommend going back to the Notifications hub and tapping on Notification pop-up style. Choose Detailed if you'd like to see the contents of a notification when it comes in instead of just the app icon. Fair warning, this does mean that anyone will be able to read notifications on your lock screen. If you want to keep things private, skip this tip.
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There are a few more handy settings that aren't enabled by default that you can enjoy by tapping on Advanced settings in the notifications hub. The first is to turn on Show all notifications. Instead of a measly three notification icons on the top left of the screen in the status bar, you'll see all the notifications you've yet to acknowledge. You should also turn on Notification history—handy for the times you accidentally swipe a notification away before you read its contents. I also like using the snooze function to remind myself about notifications later in the day, and you can tap the Show snooze button to turn this on. (You'll see a little bell icon on the bottom right corner of your notifications; press that to snooze them.)
Keep the Always-On Display … Always On
The Always-on Display is there to let you quickly see the time or any pending notifications when you glance at your phone, but by default this feature is set to Tap to show, meaning you need to tap the screen to see the Always-on Display. Bizarre. To fix this, go to Settings > Lock screen and AOD > Always-on Display and choose Always under When to show. This does drain some battery life, but it's marginal. Make sure you toggle off Show Lock screen wallpaper as this will drain battery life faster. Head back to the lock screen and AOD settings page to further customize the look of the clock on the lock screen and add some widgets.
Wake the Phone When You Lift It
You can wake your Samsung Galaxy phone when you lift it instead of requiring a tap on the screen. You can also double-tap the home or lock screen to wake the display and double-tap it again to turn it off. What about if you read a web page and the screen times out and turns off? There's a fix for that too. Go to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures and toggle on Lift to wake, Double tap to turn on screen, and Double tap to turn off screen. Also, head to Settings > Display > Screen timeout and toggle on Keep screen on while viewing. Now the screen won't turn off as long as you're staring at it head-on.
Disable the Samsung Wallet Swipe Up
If you turn on gesture navigation, you'll immediately realize how annoying it is that Samsung Wallet, by default, comes to life when you swipe from the bottom edge of the screen. Sure, it's a fast way to access your credit cards, but it's so easy to accidentally trigger when you just want to see your recent apps. If you use Samsung Wallet, you can turn this off by heading to the Menu tab in the app and tapping the gear icon, and then Quick access. Tap Swipe up gesture and toggle off Lock screen, Home screen, and Screen off. Don't use Samsung Wallet at all? Just press and hold the icon in the app drawer and tap Uninstall.
Get Rid of Folders in the App Drawer
Seeing folders in the app drawer annoys me. When I'm quickly searching for an app and I don't find it in the list, it's usually because it's in a folder. One of the first things I do when I set up a new Samsung phone is sort the app drawer alphabetically. To do this, swipe up from the home screen to access the app drawer and tap on the triple-dot icon at the top right. Tap Sort and choose Alphabetical order. If you like folders in your app drawer, just press and hold an app and drag it on top of another to create one. But if you don't want them, press and hold any folders you find in the app drawer and tap Delete folder.
Turn off the Edge Panel
See that translucent pane on the right edge of your screen? Have you accidentally opened it when you meant to swipe back and go to a previous page or app? Me too. This is called Edge Panel, and it's a tucked-away panel that lets you get immediate access to a set of apps (of your choice). It's like a persistent dock.
This can be immensely useful, so I encourage you to play around with it first. Pull it open and tap the pencil icon at the bottom to customize it and choose the apps you want. You can also go to Settings > Display > Edge panels > Panels to add different kinds, like a weather panel, a reminders panel, or a clipboard panel. Tap Handle in the Edge Panels settings page to tweak the position of the panel and change the transparency, size, etcetera, which might make it harder to accidentally trigger. If you just want to turn Edge Panel off, head to Settings > Display and toggle off Edge panels.
Reorder Your Quick Settings Tiles
The Quick-Settings tiles when you pull down the notification drawer are helpful, whether you want to quickly turn on the flashlight or use Do Not Disturb mode. The layout can be a little strange when you first set up a Samsung phone, but don't worry, you can reorder it. Swipe down from the home screen twice until you see a pencil icon. Tap this, then Edit either the Top pane when you first pull down the drawer or Full when you pull down the whole thing with two swipes. You can press and hold any of the tiles to move them around, even remove ones you don't use (and find hidden ones you might). Press Done. There's also a handy setting called Quick settings instant access where you can enable the right corner of the screen to instantly open the full drawer instead of just the top pane.
Turn on the Color Palette
Want to match your phone's system theme with your wallpaper? Press and hold anywhere on the home screen until you see the home screen settings menu, then tap on Wallpaper and style. Tap Color palette and toggle it on. You can choose from a set of colors it pulls from your wallpaper, or a set of basic colors. Toggle on Apply palette to app icons for a more cohesive look, though this works only if an app supports the feature (most first-party apps do).
Expand Your Grids
Want to add more space to your home screen? You can tweak the grid layout to add more rows and columns so you can fit more on the screen. Press and hold anywhere on the home screen to see the Home Screen settings menu. Tap Settings > Home screen grid and play around with the different grid sizes to see what works. I prefer the 5×5 layout. You can do the same for the app drawer and even your folders by going to the App screen grid and Folders grid, and I prefer 5×5 and 4×4 for those, respectively.
Turn on Battery Protection
If you intend to hold on to your smartphone for several years (as you should), then you'll want to protect the battery at all costs. Try to keep your phone between 50 and 80 percent charged, as depleting it completely or keeping it topped up all the time can decrease the battery's efficiency over time. Samsung has a feature that can help with this—head to Settings > Battery and toggle on Battery protection. You can choose between Basic, Adaptive, or Maximum. For the latter, it will limit the maximum charge to 80 percent, thereby extending the life of your phone. This does mean permanently losing 20 percent per day, but try it out for a few days to see how severely it affects your use. The Adaptive option puts your phone on the Maximum setting when you're sleeping and charging, and switches to Basic when you wake up, getting you closer to 100 percent. You can find tips on how to save smartphone battery life here.
Turn on Dolby Atmos Sound
Samsung brags about how its phones support Dolby Atmos for richer-sounding audio, but this feature is off by default. To turn it on, head to Settings > Sounds and vibration > Sound quality and effects. Toggle on Dolby Atmos and Dolby Atmos for gaming. I usually set the former on Auto, and there's a slightly noticeable difference in audio quality with it turned on—music sounds a little louder and more robust. You'll find other sound settings you can play around with here like the Equalizer and Adapt Sound features to tweak the audio for your ears.
Enable Samsung's New Galaxy AI
Only available on newer Samsung devices, Galaxy AI is the catch-all name for a few new smart features powered by Google's Gemini artificial intelligence model. You can look at all of them at Settings > Advanced features > Advanced intelligence. There's Live Translate, which in the Phone app lets you talk to someone else in another language and translate what they say. In Samsung Keyboard, you can turn on Style and grammar to get some AI help in the tone of your sentences or with punctuation. We've got the full list of new software tricks here, but feel free to run through all of them and see how they work.
Get Rid of Bloatware
Years ago, Samsung didn't let you uninstall a lot of bloatware—apps that were redundant or that you never wanted to use. Nowadays, you can uninstall most of these apps. Just tap and hold the app in the app drawer or home screen and press Uninstall. If you can't uninstall them, you can at the very least Disable them so they disappear from view. This now works with Samsung's Calendar app, which was previously difficult to get rid of.
If you can't uninstall or disable an app, your next best option is to hide it. Open the app drawer, tap the triple-dot icon at the top right, tap Settings, and scroll down to Hide apps on Home and Apps screens. Tap on the app you want to hide, and that's it!
Enable Link to Windows
Got a Windows PC? You can connect your Samsung phone to make and take calls from your machine, see texts and photos, and even use your phone apps in Windows. On Windows, open the Microsoft Store app and search and install Phone Link. On your Samsung device, head to Settings > Connected devices > Link to Windows. Follow the prompts on the screens to pair the two devices via the QR code.
Switch Your Keyboard
If you're often frustrated with Samsung's default keyboard, you're not alone. I much prefer Gboard, Google's keyboard app. The good news is that it's easy to swap keyboards! Once you download the keyboard you want, whether it's Gboard or some other third-party app, head to Settings > General management > Keyboard list and default and tap on Default keyboard. You might need to toggle on your new keyboard in this menu first. Head back to General management and tap on Gboard settings to customize it to your liking.
Turn on Extend Unlock
Android has long had a feature that keeps your phone unlocked when you're connected to another device with Bluetooth (like a car or smartwatch), or if you're in a specific location, like your home. Don't turn this on if you feel uncomfortable having your phone unlocked in these scenarios, but if you find it convenient, you can head to Settings > Lock screen and AOD > Extend Unlock to play around with it. I usually prefer turning on Trusted devices and choosing my smartwatch or car so I don't need to fuss with a passcode or fingerprint when I'm driving (not that I'm actively using my phone while driving). But I prefer using Extend Unlock's Trusted places function to essentially disable the lock screen passcode when I'm home.
Add Emergency Contacts and Emergency Sharing
It's smart to put your emergency contacts on your smartphone. To add people, you can go to Settings > Safety and emergency > Emergency contacts and add friends and family from your contacts list. Head back to the previous menu and make sure Emergency SOS is toggled on. This lets you press the power key five times to start a 10-second countdown that will dial emergency services. Toggle on Send SOS to emergency contacts to keep them in the loop, and this will take you to Emergency sharing settings. You have the option of allowing the phone to send pictures from the front and rear cameras as well as an audio recording when it sends your location to your emergency contacts. It'll also add a warning if your Galaxy phone is nearly out of battery.
Create AI-generated Wallpaper
Some newer Samsung devices can create AI-generated wallpapers. If you're struggling to find a good wallpaper, give it a try. Tap and hold the home screen until you see the home screen settings menu, then tap Wallpaper and style. Tap Change wallpapers and scroll down to Creative. Tap Generative and now you can choose one of the genres to get started. From there, tap on the words to change the subject, then press Generate. Swipe through the AI-made wallpapers to find one you like, and apply it to the lock screen or home screen!
