21 Key Samsung Phone Settings You Should Always Change (2024): Tips and Tricks

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…