When you pick up an Android phone, the software experience will differ depending on who made it. Google makes the core of the Android operating system, but everyone else likes to change it in their way.
On Google’s Pixel phones, for example, you can use Google Assistant to screen calls and use a Now Playingwidget on the lock screen to find out what song is playing in the background. Samsung phones, which run an Android version called OneUI, are the same. If you have a Samsung phone, these are some of the best features you won’t find on phones made by other companies.
You can hide applications that you don’t utilize.
You’ll use some apps more than others, and you don’t want a lot of apps you don’t use taking up space on your screen. This makes the interface look messy and harder to find the apps you want. You can always uninstall apps, but that might not be what you want.
Also, you can’t get rid of some important Samsung and Google apps that come pre-installed, so you’re stuck with them. With Samsung’s OneUI, you can hide apps, which is a good solution. They are still on your phone but don’t appear on your home screens, in your app drawer, or in searches.
To get them back, you have to find them again. To hide apps, open the app drawer, tap the three dots in the top right corner, and then tap Settings. If you choose Hide apps, you can choose any apps on your phone from the list and hide or show them. All the apps you have hidden are at the top.
Optimize Your Device
If you go to the Settings app and click on Battery and device care, you’ll find a screen for managing your phone that isn’t on other Android devices. It’s there to maintain your phone running as well as possible for as long as possible. This care for and optimization of the device includes the health of the Battery, the amount of free storage, the system memory, and several security settings.
You get an overall score for how well optimized your device is right at the top of the screen. Even though the device care utilities are always running in the background to check for problems, you can tap the Optimize now button to do a manual optimization. This is helpful if you think your phone might have a few problems.
As part of the optimization process, your device may look for duplicate or large files that unnecessarily take up space. It may also look for apps draining battery power or running in the background that don’t need to be.
Change the Always-On Display.
Samsung phones provide you with better control than most do over what and how you see on your lock screen. To set it up, go to Settings, Lock Screen, and Always On Display. However, some cheaper Samsung phones don’t have this feature. You’ll see that you can change a lot of different settings.
You can choose, for example, how long the always-on display stays visible and which digital or analog clock style you like best. You can also change the brightness of the text on the lock screen and switch between the portrait and landscape modes.
You can also choose whether or not the always-on display shows the controls for playing media. You can even download whole themes for the display that stays on all the time: Tap Themes in the Settings menu and tap AOD to see what’s available. There are different levels of quality, but you should be able to find at least a few things you like.
Put things in a secure folder.
If you have a mid-range or top-of-the-line Samsung smartphone, you have access to a Secure Folder, a safe place on your phone where you can store any file that no one else can see. You need to use a fingerprint, a PIN code, or a pattern to get into the Secure Folder on your Samsung phone. All the information in the folder is fully encrypted, so it’s almost impossible for someone to get into it.
Choose Biometrics and Security from the Settings menu, and then choose Secure Folder. Once you’ve set up your authentication method and opened the Secure Folder, you can add new files and apps to it by tapping the “+” button. Several other apps on your phone can also add files to the Secure Folder. In the Gallery app, for example, you can choose photos and videos and then swipe More and Move to Secure Folder.
Run Samsung DeX
Samsung DeX is a method to utilize your phone with a computer keyboard, mouse, and screen. It can be helpful if, for example, you edit pictures or write a lot on your phone. You’re turning Android and OneUI into a desktop operating system, with all its benefits, like floating windows, easier control of your applications, keyboard shortcuts, and so on.
You require some special hardware. This works with a Galaxy S series phone, and to connect it to your monitor and other devices, and you need a Samsung DeX cable. You can join it to a laptop or desktop computer and utilize the connected devices. Samsung has a complete guide to DeX that you can read, but it’s not hard to set up and should make you much more productive on your phone, both in terms of what you can do and how quickly you can do it.