Are you thinking of switching from an iPhone to an Android phone? Before you make a permanent change from Apple to the other side, it's good to try out the other ecosystem and see if it makes sense for you. If you can't get your hands on an Android phone to try it out, you can simulate Android right on your iPhone. You can even see what a foldable smartphone feels like!
One UI has an exciting privacy feature that lets you lock apps, photos, videos, and files on your Galaxy device behind Samsung's defense-grade Knox security platform. Only you can unlock it using a pattern, PIN, or passcode, or with biometrics like fingerprint and iris locks. It's like having a safe built right into your smartphone, and it couldn't be easier to set up.
Bloatware is a problem on Android, and it's not just a Samsung thing. Removing apps that have the Uninstall or Disable button grayed out in Settings has always involved sending ADB commands to your phone from a computer, which itself was always such a pain to set up. Thankfully, that has finally changed.
Samsung's One UI has slowly become the model for Android skins. The old iOS-like TouchWiz already feels like a relic, thanks in part to the newer user interface's exceptional design and fast but meaningful updates. One UI is so good, other OEM skins have copied elements of it. The latest release is One UI 2.5, which has over 20 new features that make the skin even better.
If you have a Samsung device, you probably know the hassle of dealing with both the Galaxy Store and the Google Play Store at the same time for apps. Samsung's offering is forced onto you whether you like it or not; however, it's the only way to officially receive essential updates for your Samsung apps. The good news? You can keep on top of these updates with a super simple trick.
Samsung's stock Galaxy Themes system leaves much to be desired with its restrictive and expensive theme packs. Back in the day, the gold standard for Android theming was CyanogenMod Theme Engine. And while it no longer exists, a successor has emerged to fill the void.
By default, the One UI launcher on Galaxy phones makes you scroll all the way back to the left when you hit the end of your app list. Luckily, Samsung has its own solution to help fix this problem if it annoys you. Save yourself a bunch of extra swipes and read on to learn more.
In the past, if you upgraded to a new Galaxy or if you had to factory reset your existing one to fix an issue, you had to restore your home screen layout manually. Your wallpaper, widgets, icon placement, and launcher settings were all dependent on you to be put back in their place. Thankfully, this isn't an issue anymore.
In previous Android versions, you lost about an inch of screen real estate to the status bar and navigation bar. But if you enable Android 10's new navigation gestures on your Samsung Galaxy, you can regain the bottom part — and with the help of ADB, you can reclaim the top portion as well.
If you're using a VPN app to block ads or secure your Galaxy's internet connection, Samsung has decided you need yet another non-dismissible notification from One UI to tell you about it. Not just a status bar indicator like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but a full-size alert that can't be dismissed. The entire time your always-on VPN is running.
With Samsung's One UI version of Android, it's easier than ever to take a screenshot and quickly edit the captured image. However, the downside to that convenience has manifested itself in an overlay ribbon that can also get in the way.
An unfortunate byproduct of Samsung's One UI version of Android is redundancy, where you have the Google/AOSP way of doing things mixed with Samsung's methods at the same time.
Samsung put some of the industry's most advanced camera tech in the Galaxy S20 series. However, their image processing still lags behind the Google Camera app found on Pixel phones, so the end result is good but not great. Luckily, you can install a mod to pair that beastly hardware with arguably the best camera software.
If you haven't used a Samsung device in a few years, the Galaxy S20 series will be your first taste of One UI 2, the skin running on top of Android 10. Although One UI is on the heavier side, it has loads of exciting features that go beyond what's offered in stock Android.
Despite Android's flexibility in regards to customization, the options available in stock Android are pretty barebones. It is only with the help of third-party apps that we can entirely transform sections of the UI to our liking. And thanks to a new app, we can modify another part of the OS, the status bar.
By default, when there's a new event in Samsung's Calendar app, it pops up with an obnoxious full-screen window to let you know. Thankfully, there's a way to turn these into regular notifications.
The awkward silence when you're adding someone's name and number to your contacts is worse than usual since you're meeting a new person and this is part of their first impression of you. So don't get labeled as clumsy or slow before you even get a chance to network with your new contact — just whip out your phone and confidently showcase this trick instead.
Smartphone photos look a lot better when you keep the camera steady, but selfies by nature make you do finger gymnastics to hold the phone while keeping your thumb free to hit the shutter button. If you have a Galaxy phone like the S10, however, there's an ingenious feature you can use to help ensure perfect selfies on the first try.
While Samsung's three-tabbed gesture controls are pretty intuitive, there's still a learning curve. By removing the buttons, you seemingly lose the ability to jump between apps with the quick switch gesture. I say seemingly since there's still a way, it's just not very obvious.
Is it just me, or are the thumbnail in the Samsung Gallery app a bit small? I spend quite a bit of time looking through rows of images, one at a time, to find the right photo. Wouldn't it be so much easier if the thumbnails showed the entire image instead of a cropped square? Well, there's a way to do just that.
Before all the fancy night mode settings in phone cameras, we used the LED flash to take low-light photos. While it's not used for pictures as much anymore, the LED on the back of your Galaxy is still pretty handy as a flashlight. But did you know there's an easy way to adjust the brightness of this flashlight?
Samsung launched One UI in 2018 to replace the now infamous TouchWiz. Since then, things have been looking pretty bright for Galaxy users. Now, the much-anticipated arrival of Android 10 is ushering in the One UI 2.0 era, including a new set of gesture-based controls.
QR codes are like smart little cubes of data. To unlock this data, you will need a QR reader. These are annoying because you typically have to download a third-party app, and some of these apps are shady. Luckily your Samsung Galaxy running One UI has a hidden QR scanner built right in.
Phones are getting bigger and taller, so it's increasingly harder to reach the notification tray. But Samsung is here to the rescue, as they've introduced into One UI for Galaxy devices a gesture that makes it easy to access the notification drawer on your home screen.
Though more well known for their OLED displays and advanced cameras, Galaxy phones like the S8, Note 10 & 10+ and S10 series are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to audio. In fact, flagships from the S9 on up feature AKG-tuned stereo speakers, along with a slew of software enhancements that make listening to music a truly pleasurable experience.
Let me paint a picture for you. You're on a long flight home, and while listening to music on your Samsung Galaxy S10, a great song comes on. You want your friend to hear it too, who's also listening to music using a pair of Bluetooth headphones. Thanks to Dual Audio, you can easily share your experience.
I don't know about you, but I like to listen to music throughout the day. As I am writing articles or doing some cardio at the gym, I go through my playlist, only stopping the music in situations where I have to. And ever since I switched to the Samsung Galaxy S10+, this has gotten even easier to do.
While the audio experience is solid on Galaxy phones, it isn't the absolute best out of the box. That's because Samsung has partnered with Dolby Laboratories to provide its industry-leading sound technology known as Dolby Atmos, but it's turned off by default. Once enabled, your audio experience will go from good to great.
Samsung may have beaten Apple to the punch in introducing a system-wide dark theme with One UI, but they left out the ability to schedule night mode to kick in automatically. It's nothing that a little update can't fix, however, and that's exactly what Samsung just did to remedy this issue.
The Android 9 Pie update brought a lot of visual changes, some of which are a little too reminiscent of iOS. There's the new gesture controls, which are okay, but then there are things like a left-justified clock and the fact that the recent apps menu now scrolls horizontally instead of vertically. Luckily, Samsung has given us a way to bring back the classic Android style.
Android 9.0 Pie moved the status bar clock from the right corner to the left to accommodate phones with notches, but there's one major downside for Samsung users: since no Galaxy phones have a notch, all this did was take away space for the notification icons that would otherwise start from the left corner.
It's no secret that Google is all about AI. In their eyes, machine learning is the future of software development, and you can see evidence of this all over the last couple Android updates. They've used it to power all sorts of features in their Pixel phones, and they've even donated some of their AI smarts to AOSP for all Android manufacturers to share. But it looks like Samsung isn't exactly on board.
We've been expecting the latest Android Pie update for current Samsung flagships like the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 for some time now, but Samsung's running behind schedule in the United States. Thankfully, it appears that One UI has finally started rolling out for some lucky S9 owners.
Samsung's version of Android Pie has landed on Galaxy handsets like the Note 9, S9, and S8, though we've known what to expect thanks to leaked beta versions of the software a few months back. The newly dubbed One UI has plenty of new features and improvements, but some of the first you might notice are the visual improvements to the default messaging app.
Samsung's Android Pie update — known as One UI — is bringing major changes to the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9, and Galaxy Note 9. The main interface has received a visual overhaul, and this is no more evident than it is with notifications.
Thanks to Samsung's One UI, we can now experience firsthand what Android 9.0 Pie has to offer flagship Galaxy devices like the Note 9, S9, and S8. Perhaps one of the best features is something we've all been clamoring for: a system-wide dark theme that gives numerous apps and UI elements a custom look without having to resort to using a third-party theme.
To give you a truly immersive experience on Infinity Display phones like the Galaxy Note 9, S9, and S8, Samsung added the option to hide the navigation bar when not in use, then easily reveal it with a swipe up gesture for quick access. If you've always found this process a little too cumbersome, Samsung has introduced a nifty feature in One UI that'll make it a lot more intuitive.
Android 9.0 Pie has finally arrived for Galaxy devices like the Note 9, S9, and S8, in the form of One UI. Of course, we've had a good idea as to what Samsung had up its sleeve for some time, thanks in large part to beta versions of the firmware that leaked out well before its official debut. Nevertheless, it's still exciting to experience the new features the software has to offer — with all its kinks ironed out.
Android Pie has finally made its way to signature Galaxy devices like the Note 9, S9 and S8. As you all know, Samsung Experience got a major makeover and has been renamed to One UI, featuring significant aesthetic changes to many of its native apps.
One of the headlining features in Samsung's One UI update is a new dark mode that turns stock apps and system menus black. But something you may have missed is what this theme does to the Samsung Internet app and all the websites you visit.
Thanks to leaks that let us try out the latest Android Pie beta on the Galaxy S9, we already have a good idea of what the update has in store for Samsung's flagships moving forward. As we've come to expect, Android 9.0 brings a slew of notable updates, such as the addition of a system-wide dark theme and an all-new TouchWiz replacement called "One UI."
Who doesn't love a refresh? Samsung's upcoming One UI makes it easier to use your device with one hand and adds a fresh coat of paint to the formally "Samsung Experience" skin. While you're probably looking forward to installing One UI on your phone, not all Galaxies are equal — your device could be one of the first to receive the update, or it could never see One UI at all.
As Samsung's very own take on Android 9.0 Pie, the newly-dubbed One UI (formerly Samsung Experience, and TouchWiz before that) comes with a slew of new features and redesigned elements for the Galaxy's interface. Many of the changes, like the redesigned native app icons, are readily apparent, but other features got subtle enhancements that greatly improve user friendliness.
With Android Pie beta now available for the Galaxy S9 and S9+, Samsung is well on its way to catching up to major competitors like the Google Pixel 3 in terms of giving its users the latest and greatest software Android has to offer. Of course, Samsung has added its own touches to the software to make Android Pie its own and set it apart from the rest of the crowd.
Samsung isn't known for its timely rollout of major Android updates, and Android 9.0 Pie won't be an exception. If we go by their Oreo update timeline, we can expect Android Pie to officially touch down for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ sometime around November, with the final version rolling out the around the first quarter of 2019. But a leaked version of the beta has already hit the internet.
