{"id":258053,"date":"2026-01-29T18:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258053\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T18:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:42:18","slug":"my-samsung-phone-is-infinitely-better-since-i-tweaked-these-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/258053\/","title":{"rendered":"My Samsung phone is infinitely better since I tweaked these settings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest issue with Samsung\u2019s One UI is that it feels like too much. From dozens of menus, duplicate apps, and features, the South Korean giants throw away many things that you will likely never use.<\/p>\n

But after daily driving my Samsung Galaxy for months, I realized the problem wasn\u2019t the software; it was the default setup.<\/p>\n

Samsung hides its most powerful productivity gems<\/a> and aesthetic refinements behind layers of sub-menus that most users never bother to touch.<\/p>\n

I spent the last few weeks digging through them and found several tweaks that helped me create a perfectly tailored productivity machine.<\/p>\n

\"3D<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tThese 5 Good Lock modules feel too essential to stay optional on Samsung phones
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

They should be built into One UI<\/p>\n

Combining panels<\/p>\n

\"Samsung\"panel<\/p>\n

Samsung followed Apple\u2019s footsteps and started separating the quick toggles menu from the notification bar. Now, I must reach the top of the right corner just to disable Wi-Fi or enable the power-saving mode.<\/p>\n

I prefer the old layout where I could swipe anywhere on the screen and access both my notifications and quick settings. Thankfully, unlike Apple, Samsung offers an option to revert the change.<\/p>\n

I went into the quick settings menu and opened the Panel settings. I selected Together and made sure the brightness control appeared under the same menu with a single swipe. And that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t need to download any Good Lock<\/a> module or rely on any third-party hacks for such convenience.<\/p>\n

Whether I\u2019m quickly toggling a VPN, switching my Google Pixel Buds from my MacBook back to Samsung, or just checking a Slack notification, I\u2019m doing it with a single gesture from the middle of the screen.<\/p>\n

Tweaking live notifications on the Now bar<\/p>\n

\"Samsung\"Now<\/p>\n

One of the most distracting parts of any phone is the constant stream of live updates that you didn\u2019t actually ask for. On Samsung\u2019s new Now Bar, this can quickly turn from a useful tool into a cluttered mess of random alerts.<\/p>\n

To fix this, I went to Settings > Lock screen and AOD > Now bar. Under the Live notifications section, I tapped View more to see the full list of apps. From there, I toggled off anything that wasn\u2019t vital.<\/p>\n

By disabling the broad Google alerts, I received only relevant alerts from Samsung Health, Music, and other utilities on the lock screen.<\/p>\n

Customizing the side button<\/p>\n

\"Samsung\"customize<\/p>\n

For a long time, the default behavior for holding down the side button wasn\u2019t to turn off the phone. It was to summon an assistant I frankly never use.<\/p>\n

I lost count of how many times I was just trying to restart my device or shut it down for a movie, only to be greeted by a Bixby splash screen.<\/p>\n

I headed straight into Settings > Advanced features > Side button. In the Press and hold section, Samsung gives you two choices: Wake Bixby or Power off menu. I can\u2019t tap that second option fast enough.<\/p>\n

Now, when I hold that button, I get exactly what I expect \u2014 the classic shutdown, restart, and emergency call toggles. I would love to see more customization options, though.<\/p>\n

Hiding status and navigation bars in screen recording<\/p>\n

\"Samsung\"disable<\/p>\n

One of the biggest issues I have as a tech writer is seeing a beautiful, clean screenshot ruined by a cluttered status bar.<\/p>\n

Samsung has a solution for that as well. I headed into Settings > Advanced features > Screenshots and screen recordings and toggled the option to hide status and navigation bars.<\/p>\n

Now, the second I tap that screenshot shortcut or start a screen recording, my phone automatically strips away the clock, the signal bars, and notifications.<\/p>\n

\"Colorful<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t6 useful built-in Samsung One UI apps you’re probably not using \u2014 but you should be
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

As a Samsung user, you owe it to yourself<\/p>\n

Using Dual Messenger<\/p>\n

\"Samsung\"dual<\/p>\n

Since I run a dual-SIM setup, one of the biggest frustrations used to be the \u2018one app, one account\u2019 limitation.<\/p>\n

I carry both a personal and a professional line on a single device, but for the longest time, WhatsApp made it clunky to stay logged in on both.<\/p>\n

So I rely on a native Samsung feature that handles it much more elegantly: Dual Messenger.<\/p>\n

Instead of carrying two phones or constantly switching between Business and Personal app versions, I went into Settings > Advanced features > Dual Messenger.<\/p>\n

I toggled the switch for WhatsApp, and the system instantly created a second, completely isolated instance of the app.<\/p>\n

Restarting the phone when needed<\/p>\n

\"Samsung\"auto<\/p>\n

One of the most effective ways I have found to keep my Galaxy feeling snappy isn\u2019t some complex cleaner app or a hidden developer trick. It\u2019s just a simple, scheduled reboot.<\/p>\n

Instead of waiting for my phone to lag, I let my Galaxy take care of itself while I\u2019m asleep. I headed into Settings > Device care > Auto optimization and toggled on Auto restart.<\/p>\n

Samsung gives you two ways to handle this: you can let the phone decide when it needs a reboot, or you can set a specific schedule.<\/p>\n

What I love about this feature is that it isn\u2019t dumb automation. My phone won\u2019t just cut off in the middle of something important. It only triggers the restart if specific conditions are met:<\/p>\n

The screen is off.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not actively using the phone.<\/p>\n

The battery is above 30%.<\/p>\n

The SIM card lock is off.<\/p>\n

From bloatware to powerhouse<\/p>\n

The beauty of the Samsung ecosystem isn\u2019t just in the raw specs. It\u2019s in the incredible amount of control hidden just beneath the surface.<\/p>\n

It took me a lot of trial and error to find the sweet spot between \u2018feature-packed\u2019 and \u2018cluttered\u2019, but the result is a phone that finally feels like it was built for my workflow.<\/p>\n

If you have been feeling like your Galaxy is a bit too noisy or a little too slow<\/a>, try these tweaks for a couple of weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest issue with Samsung\u2019s One UI is that it feels like too much. From dozens of menus,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-258053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}