10 easy tweaks to make your Samsung Galaxy S22 experience better

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10 easy tweaks to make your Samsung Galaxy S22 experience better



The Samsung Galaxy S22 may not look a lot different from its predecessor, but there’s a lot to sink your teeth into. From an updated software experience to improved optics and internal hardware, there are plenty of things to go through. The real question, however, is where should you begin? The Galaxy S22 offers a pretty good experience right out of the box, but here are 10 tweaks you can make to your shiny new phone and get the most out of it.

Navigate this article:

• Customize the quick settings panel
• Add a Smart Widget
• Use Finder to get customized suggestions
• Enable roaming clock on the lock screen
• Setup Secure Folder
• Turn off notifications per app
• Use the Edge panel to access your favorite apps
• Setup Samsung’s Find My Mobile for offline tracking
• Remap your side button
• Miscellaneous battery saving tips

Customize the quick settings panel

Customizing the quick settings panel pays huge dividends to make your experience better. Being able to swipe down from the home screen or an app to quickly get actionable toggles helps you get things done quicker. You can add a lot of tools to the quick settings panel, however, only the first six quick settings toggles are shown in the compact view across the top when you swipe down from your home screen.

I recommend customizing this top row to add only the ones that you see yourself using more frequently. Here’s how to do that:

• Swipe down twice from the home screen to reveal the quick settings menu.
• Now, swipe left to reveal more toggles and a “+” icon that lets you add or customize the layout of these options.
• Tap and hold the existing toggles to rearrange them. Alternatively, you can also tap and hold the icons on the top to drag and drop them below to be added to the main quick settings panel.

Add a Smart Widget

One of the new features of the Galaxy S22 series is the addition of the new Smart Widgets. This particular feature essentially lets you stack widgets, allowing you to glance over more than one of your favorite apps while taking less space on your home screen. To add a smart widget:

• Tap and hold on your home screen and select widgets.
• Now select Smart Widgets from the widget selection menu and choose one of the available options.
• Once added, you can tap and hold the widget to see an option to customize, and add or remove widgets from the stack.

Note: Smart Widgets will not work if you’re using a third-party launcher. You’ll have to stick with Samsung’s One UI Home for this one.


Use Finder to get customized suggestions

Samsung’s One UI Home launcher comes with a powerful search tool that lets you find different apps, settings, and more. You can also use this to find search results on the web or within an app. One of the best things about this particular Finder tool is that you can customize it to show only the suggestions you want to see. Here’s how to do it:

• Head to the app drawer and tap on the search bar to open the Finder page.
• Now, tap on the three-dot menu in the top-right corner to open Finder’s settings page.
• Here, you’ll see a bunch of toggles that allow you to get suggested results while searching for something using the Finder. Turning off the suggested settings option, for instance, will hide the settings suggestions on the main Finder page.

Enable roaming clock on the lock screen

If you’re someone who likes traveling then having a roaming clock on your phone’s lock screen is a godsend. To enable roaming clock:

• Head into Settings > Lock screen > Roaming clock.
• Here, you’ll be able to set your home time zone and also find an option to make the roaming clock visible on the Always On Display.

Alternatively, if you’re like me who works with an international team on a day-to-day basis, you can use the roaming clock to keep a track of the local timing of your teammates in a different region. To do this, simply change the home time zone inside the roaming clock setting page to whatever timezone your teammates are in. It’s a simple hack that allows me to keep a track of the time for some of my teammates working in a timezone.

Setup Secure Folder

The Samsung Galaxy S22 offers a secure folder for those who are worried about others accessing their phone and finding personal files, photos, etc., which they shouldn’t. The secure folder, once set up, can also hide some apps that you may want to hide from others. It essentially adds an additional layer of security for those who like to keep things private. To set up a secure folder:

• Head over to the biometrics and security inside the Settings page.
• Inside, you’ll find an option to create a secure folder.
• Tap on it and simply follow the on-screen instructions to read about the secure folder and wait for the device to finish setting one for you.

• Once done, you can secure this folder using the authentication method of choice.
• As soon as you open the folder, you’ll see a set of apps that are already added to the folder. You can hit the “+” button to add more apps to it.
• Additionally, you can also hit the three-dot menu to find an option to add files to the folder. This particular option will allow you to add anything from photos, videos, audio files, documents, and more.

Turn off notifications per app

Google is adding an option to Android 13 that lets you turn off notifications per app. Samsung’s One UI 4.1, however, already has this option that you can use to block unwanted notifications. This comes in handy when you don’t want to see notifications from certain apps that tend to spam your device to capture your attention. Here’s how you can turn off notifications per app:

• Head over to Settings and find the Notifications option. Here, you’ll see a ‘Recently sent’ section which, as the name suggests, shows you a short list of apps that sent you notifications recently.
• You can either turn off the notifications from those apps directly or hit the “More” button to see a list of all the apps that are installed on your phone.
• Find the app that you don’t want to see notifications from and turn them off to avoid getting spammed in the future.

Use the Edge panel to access your favorite apps

Samsung introduced the Edge panel feature with the Galaxy S6 Edge, the company’s first smartphone with a display that’s curved on both edges. So it’s safe to say that this particular feature has been around for quite some time now. It has also improved over the years and I think it’s a great way to access your favorite apps, functions, and even contacts. Here’s how you can enable and customize Edge panels on the Galaxy S22:

• Head to the Display option inside the Settings page, and scroll down a bit to find the Edge panels option.
• From here, you can enable the Edge panel and also select what you want to see on the panel. For instance, you can have the Edge panel show you the apps of your choice, different contacts, tasks, or even customized panels for weather, compass, reminder, and more.
• You can also find an option to customize the Edge panel in terms of how it looks and from where you can swipe on the display to reveal it. There are a lot of options to go through, so be sure to spend some time on this.

You can enable and use Edge panels even with third-party launchers.


Setup Samsung’s Find My Mobile for offline tracking

Samsung’s new Offline finding feature will let you find your lost Galaxy phone even if it’s not connected to a network. I highly recommend using this particular feature to be able to find your Galaxy S22 if you end you losing it. The Offline finding feature uses other nearby Samsung phones to detect your phone, just like a Galaxy SmartTag would.

If that sounds like a privacy nightmare to you, then don’t worry because Samsung also provides an ‘Encrypt offline location’ feature. To enable offline tracking of your device:

• Head over to the Find My Mobile option that’s located inside the Biometrics and security option on the Settings page.
• Here, you’ll see the Offline finding option along with a couple of other ones including Remote Unlock and Send last location.
• Simply enable Offline finding and also enable Encrypt offline location that can be found inside the Offline finding option.

Remap your side button

Did you know that long-pressing the side button no longer opens the power menu by default on Samsung phones? That’s right, a long press on the Galaxy S22 now opens Bixby while a quick double-tap opens your camera app by default. Thankfully, you can remap these actions by heading over to the settings page. Here’s how to do it:

• Open the Settings app and head to Advanced features.
• Scroll down to find the Side key menu and tap on it to expand the option to remap.

Your options are fairly limited when it comes to press and hold function — wake up Bixby or open the Power off menu. The double-press feature, however, has a lot of options to choose from. You can set it to open any app that’s installed on your phone. Notably, you can also use it to activate things like the flashlight.

Miscellaneous battery saving tips

The battery life is more of a gray area for the Samsung Galaxy S22. The device packs a 3,700 mAh battery inside which results in less-than-ideal battery life. Depending on how you use your smartphone, there?s a good chance you might be running for a charger before the end of the day. So for the last tweak in this article, we wanted to touch upon some of the battery saving tips to make sure you’re not having a miserable experience with the device.

Turn on dark mode

Enabling dark mode on the Galaxy S22 significantly lowers the power required by the phone to illuminate those white pixels. You can enable this by heading over Settings > Display. It’s the first option on the top inside the Display settings page.



Manually adjust the brightness instead of using Adaptive

Using the Adaptive brightness feature will make it one less thing to worry about, but I suggest you manually control the brightness of the phone to make sure you’re not over-extending the battery usage. The Adaptive brightness feature tends to miss the mark by making the display appear brighter than I want it at times. I highly recommend swiping down the notification shade to manually adjust the brightness, thereby putting less load on the battery too.

Turn off features you aren’t using



By default, the Samsung Galaxy S22 comes enabled with a bunch of features that you may not use at all times. This includes things like the NFC, 5G mobile network, all vibration notifications, and more. You can turn these settings off by quickly searching for them on the Settings page. I always turn off NFC and disable 5G from the mobile network settings since I don’t want my phone to constantly hunt for a compatible NFC or 5G signal.

Closing thoughts

Well, that brings us to the conclusion of the top 10 tweaks you can make to your Galaxy S22. We hope this guide proves useful in setting up your new device and getting the most out of it. There are a few other things you can do like changing the accent colors for better customization, setup Bixby routines, and more. You may also find some settings of your own that work best for you. If you do, then be sure to leave them in the comments below.

• Samsung Galaxy S22
  
  

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• The Samsung Galaxy S22 is the entry flagship for 2022, bringing over top of the line performance and camera capabilities in a form that fits many pockets and budgets.

• Buy from Samsung

While you’re here, we also encourage you to check out some of the best cases you can buy for the Galaxy S22. It’s a small and fragile phone that’s made out of glass, so it might be a good idea to add some protection to it.


The post 10 easy tweaks to make your Samsung Galaxy S22 experience better appeared first on XDA.



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