Samsung Galaxy S23: The 9 best tips to optimize your phone’s home screen
Samsung’s One UI skin has many useful features, and the company’s software support and update speed are second to none. With each new One UI release, Samsung delivers a more sophisticated user experience. This starts with the One UI homescreen experience, with options not found on other Android devices. Below are tips and tricks to take your homescreen experience to the next level on thebest Samsung phones.
Deactivate the app drawer
Not a fan of the app drawer? You can get rid of it and display your installed apps and games across several homescreen pages. Here’s how.
Go back to your phone’s homescreen. The installed apps show up across multiple homescreen pages to the right. With the app drawer deactivated, swiping up on the homescreen opens the Finder search, where you can search system settings, apps, files, and more.
Google Discover or Samsung Free
Depending on your preference, you can set Google Discover or Samsung Free as the leftmost page of your homescreen. If these options annoy you, turn off the panel. Google’s solution surfaces relevant content based on your interest from across the web.
Samsung Free provides the same experience. Its Watch tab features Samsung TV Plus integration and lets you stream content from certain sources for free. There’s a Play tab where you can launch instant games you don’t need to install.
Use gesture navigation
Samsung ships its phones with the navigation buttons as default instead of the intuitive navigation gestures. The first thing you should do after setting up yourGalaxy S23 Ultraor any Samsung phone is to switch to gesture navigation.
Samsung’s gesture navigation implementation doesn’t play well with third-party launchers. Keep that in mind when using an Android launcher on your devices.
Turn off the Samsung Wallet gesture
One annoying part of Samsung’s One UI home launcher is the quick access Samsung Wallet gesture. This is especially true if you use navigation gestures instead of the navigation bar. You may accidentally trigger the gesture and invoke Samsung Wallet at least a few times throughout the day.
You candeactivate the Samsung Wallet’s quick launch gesture. Or you can deactivate the homescreen gesture and activate the lock screen or screen off quick access gesture.
Hide unwanted apps
Do you want to hide selected apps from your Galaxy phone’s homescreen and app drawer? you’re able to do so from the One UI homescreen settings. This is a handy option, given the number of preinstalled apps and bloatware in the Galaxy S23 series and other flagship Galaxy phones.
Prevent new apps from being added to the homescreen
If you frequently try out new apps from the Play Store, you may not want their shortcuts on your perfectly curated homescreen. That’s why the app drawer exists. Your new Galaxy S23 Ultra orSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 4automatically adds shortcuts for new apps installed from the Play Store to your homescreen. There’s a way to prevent this from happening.
After this, the apps you install only appear on your Galaxy phone’s app drawer and don’t clutter your homescreen.
Stack widgets
Samsung’s One UI launcher lets you stack widgets on top of each other. This way, you can have multiple widgets on your primary homescreen without taking up much space. Here’s how to stack widgets on your Galaxy phone’s homescreen.
Swipe left or right on the widget to cycle between the available widgets in a stack.
You can only create a stack of similar-sized widgets.
Customize the homescreen grid size
Samsung allows you to customize the homescreen and app drawer’s grid size. If your Galaxy phone’s default homescreen layout is a bit cramped, consider tweaking the grid size layout to make more space for app shortcuts and widgets.
Theme homescreen app icons
Samsung elegantly integrated Android 13’s Material You and dynamic theme engine in One UI 5. With the dynamic theme engine, the UI elements automatically pull colors from the wallpaper and change colors accordingly. You can also use the built-in theming engine to theme the app icons on your Galaxy phone’s homescreen.
The themed app icons appear on your phone’s homescreen and app drawer. If you don’t like the primary color choice, change the wallpaper or switch to a basic color from the color palette.
Add some pizzazz to your home screen
Customize your Galaxy phone’s homescreen to your liking
Samsung’s One UI Home launcher has plenty of options for customizing your phone’s homescreen to your liking. If One UI’s options don’t satisfy your desire for an individualized interface, check out some of ourfavorite Android launchers. An Android launcher is the closest you’ll get to total design control. Some launchers don’t work well with navigation gestures. If you can look past that, it’s hard to beat custom launchers in terms of personalization, especially when paired withAndroid icon packs.
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