The smartphones of the Samsung Galaxy series are the best-selling Android phones in the world, with commercial success due both to the fact that it is an excellent phone, and to the advertising and marketing of Samsung, very effective.
The Samsung Galaxy, including the Note and the Galaxy S9, are very rich in functions, with many modes of use different from any other Android smartphone.
The Android version installed in Samsung phones is in fact heavily modified compared to the original Google version, with the addition of various proprietary tools and additional, sometimes unnecessary options.
Below we see how to fix the options and settings of the Samsung Galaxy and the ways to solve the most frequent problems, with a guide that applies to practically every Samsung smartphone, both Galaxy S8 and S9 and the Galaxy Note, and the other series and others models.
READ ALSO: Turn the Samsung Galaxy into a normal Google Android smartphone
1) Memory full of useless apps or "bloatware"
Samsung Galaxy phones have less real memory available due to a fattened Android system with numerous features and apps pre-installed.
Also when you buy a Samsung in promotion with a Vodafone, Tim, Wind or Tre phone subscription, there may still be other apps from these phone companies.
To remove unnecessary pre-installed applications, you can tap the gear icon in the upper right corner, go to the Settings -> Applications menu, scroll through the list of all applications installed on your mobile phone and find out which ones are not never been used.
For some you can press the button to remove and uninstall them, for others there will be the button that Disables them, making them disappear from the phone even if with the possibility to reactivate them when you want.
Deactivating apps frees up the memory space occupied by updates and temporary files and will ensure that they do not remain running in the background, slowing down the phone.
Note that some system apps cannot be removed or disabled, such as Bixby Vision.
READ ALSO: Top 20 applications for Samsung Galaxy
2) Hide Bixby (or remap the button)
Bixby is Samsung's smart assistant that comes pre-installed and activated on all Samsung Galaxy phones.
Since it is not up to the Google assistant and since it is very little used, the ideal would be to disable it.
To deactivate Bixby, proceed as follows:
Perform the installation and configuration process if you have not already done so.
With Bixby up and running, open Bixby Home and then tap the gear button at the top to enter the settings.
Scroll down to the Voice section and turn off the " Bixby Voice " switch.
In addition, press and hold on the main screen of the phone, scroll the screens going left to find Bixby Home and also disable it from there.
With Bixby off, on the Galaxy S9, the button on the side of your phone doesn't do anything anymore and it may be a good idea to remap it and give it another function.
To do this it takes an app like bXAction to change function at the Bixby button.
2) Deactivate gestures
On the Samsung Galaxy S9 and previous models, Samsung has set up so many useless shortcuts of use with the gestures on the screen.
To disable them go to settings -> movement and gestures or Settings> My Device> movement and gestures .
In the end, even if any of them can be useful and tasty, deactivating the gestures also helps to improve battery life too.
READ ALSO: Useful gestures and functions on Samsung Galaxy and Android phones
3) Get rid of annoying notifications
The more apps you have, the more notifications appear at the top to fill the bar until it creates a lot of confusion.
The most effective way to avoid unnecessary or unwanted notifications is to disable them in the app itself.
Open the list of installed applications and touch the apps you don't want to be notified about to find the option to deselect.
To do this first, when a notification appears, touch and hold it and then touch on " application settings ".
Also, open the Galaxy Apps app, and from the settings, go to the Notifications section to turn off the General Notifications switch.
READ ALSO: Samsung's Do Not Disturb and Android Lock Mode
4) The battery does not last long
All Samsung Galaxy, S3, S4 and S5 smartphones have battery problems due to too many active apps.
Disabling the useless ones as from point 1 will help, as well as disabling the gestures as from point 2.
It is also worth activating the energy saving mode and deactivating all the switches that are not needed, such as bluetooth or GPS location.
To do this, just pull down the notification bar and open the quick control button.
Then set the automatic brightness, disable the auto-upload of photos without wifi (in the Google Photos app) and try one of the Android Apps to save cell phone battery.
5) Lag and slowdowns
Even a powerful smartphone like the Galaxy S5, equipped with Snapdragon 801 processor and 2 GB of RAM can have slowdowns if Samsung is the one to get our hands on.
The problem is related to its TouchWiz interface, which is rather heavy.
To improve Touchwiz's performance, it might be useful to change some options:
- Disable animations and transitions on Android (as already explained).
- Disable the activation of S Voice from the Home button, from the settings of S Voice itself.
- Replace the Launcher with something better.
Personally I would always recommend Nova Launcher on all Android smartphones, but if you prefer something free you can replace Touchwiz with one of the lightest and best free launchers for Android phones .
6) Slow Room
The Galaxy has one of the best cameras on the smartphone market today, but Samsung, being Samsung, has activated the slower shooting mode by default.
The image stabilization mode feature is useful if you take photos on the go, but not in the everyday.
Then open the camera app, tap the gear icon to open the settings and make sure that stabilization mode is turned off.
7) Turn off animations on the Edge edges
Since the Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has used the "Edge Panels", small menus on the side of the display that add functionality.
If you don't use Edge Panels, you can turn them off in Settings> Display> Screen Edges then tap the "Edge Panels" switch to turn them off.
8) Customize (or Deactivate) the always-on display
The always-on function is a way to read information on the phone screen at any time, without having to touch it.
On any Galaxy phone that includes the "always on" or "Always On Display" function, you can change some options to make it even more useful.
To customize this feature, go to Settings> Lock Screen and Security> Always On Display .
Here, you can customize the program when to keep it active (at what time of day or night), the brightness level and the content to be shown.
In Settings> Lock screen and security> Information and FaceWidgets you can change the style of the watch, as well as the widgets that appear on the Always On display, which for some reason, Samsung calls "FaceWidgets".
The function can also be deactivated by turning off the switch.
9) Set the navigation bar to the "correct" layout
Most Android phones have the bottom buttons in the following Back-Home-Recent order.
On the Samsung Galaxy instead the buttons at the bottom are in reverse order: Recent-Home-back.
This can be changed by going to Settings> Display> Navigation bar> Layout .
If there are other problems, let people know in the comments.
The Samsung Galaxy, including the Note and the Galaxy S9, are very rich in functions, with many modes of use different from any other Android smartphone.
The Android version installed in Samsung phones is in fact heavily modified compared to the original Google version, with the addition of various proprietary tools and additional, sometimes unnecessary options.
Below we see how to fix the options and settings of the Samsung Galaxy and the ways to solve the most frequent problems, with a guide that applies to practically every Samsung smartphone, both Galaxy S8 and S9 and the Galaxy Note, and the other series and others models.
READ ALSO: Turn the Samsung Galaxy into a normal Google Android smartphone
1) Memory full of useless apps or "bloatware"
Samsung Galaxy phones have less real memory available due to a fattened Android system with numerous features and apps pre-installed.
Also when you buy a Samsung in promotion with a Vodafone, Tim, Wind or Tre phone subscription, there may still be other apps from these phone companies.
To remove unnecessary pre-installed applications, you can tap the gear icon in the upper right corner, go to the Settings -> Applications menu, scroll through the list of all applications installed on your mobile phone and find out which ones are not never been used.
For some you can press the button to remove and uninstall them, for others there will be the button that Disables them, making them disappear from the phone even if with the possibility to reactivate them when you want.
Deactivating apps frees up the memory space occupied by updates and temporary files and will ensure that they do not remain running in the background, slowing down the phone.
Note that some system apps cannot be removed or disabled, such as Bixby Vision.
READ ALSO: Top 20 applications for Samsung Galaxy
2) Hide Bixby (or remap the button)
Bixby is Samsung's smart assistant that comes pre-installed and activated on all Samsung Galaxy phones.
Since it is not up to the Google assistant and since it is very little used, the ideal would be to disable it.
To deactivate Bixby, proceed as follows:
Perform the installation and configuration process if you have not already done so.
With Bixby up and running, open Bixby Home and then tap the gear button at the top to enter the settings.
Scroll down to the Voice section and turn off the " Bixby Voice " switch.
In addition, press and hold on the main screen of the phone, scroll the screens going left to find Bixby Home and also disable it from there.
With Bixby off, on the Galaxy S9, the button on the side of your phone doesn't do anything anymore and it may be a good idea to remap it and give it another function.
To do this it takes an app like bXAction to change function at the Bixby button.
2) Deactivate gestures
On the Samsung Galaxy S9 and previous models, Samsung has set up so many useless shortcuts of use with the gestures on the screen.
To disable them go to settings -> movement and gestures or Settings> My Device> movement and gestures .
In the end, even if any of them can be useful and tasty, deactivating the gestures also helps to improve battery life too.
READ ALSO: Useful gestures and functions on Samsung Galaxy and Android phones
3) Get rid of annoying notifications
The more apps you have, the more notifications appear at the top to fill the bar until it creates a lot of confusion.
The most effective way to avoid unnecessary or unwanted notifications is to disable them in the app itself.
Open the list of installed applications and touch the apps you don't want to be notified about to find the option to deselect.
To do this first, when a notification appears, touch and hold it and then touch on " application settings ".
Also, open the Galaxy Apps app, and from the settings, go to the Notifications section to turn off the General Notifications switch.
READ ALSO: Samsung's Do Not Disturb and Android Lock Mode
4) The battery does not last long
All Samsung Galaxy, S3, S4 and S5 smartphones have battery problems due to too many active apps.
Disabling the useless ones as from point 1 will help, as well as disabling the gestures as from point 2.
It is also worth activating the energy saving mode and deactivating all the switches that are not needed, such as bluetooth or GPS location.
To do this, just pull down the notification bar and open the quick control button.
Then set the automatic brightness, disable the auto-upload of photos without wifi (in the Google Photos app) and try one of the Android Apps to save cell phone battery.
5) Lag and slowdowns
Even a powerful smartphone like the Galaxy S5, equipped with Snapdragon 801 processor and 2 GB of RAM can have slowdowns if Samsung is the one to get our hands on.
The problem is related to its TouchWiz interface, which is rather heavy.
To improve Touchwiz's performance, it might be useful to change some options:
- Disable animations and transitions on Android (as already explained).
- Disable the activation of S Voice from the Home button, from the settings of S Voice itself.
- Replace the Launcher with something better.
Personally I would always recommend Nova Launcher on all Android smartphones, but if you prefer something free you can replace Touchwiz with one of the lightest and best free launchers for Android phones .
6) Slow Room
The Galaxy has one of the best cameras on the smartphone market today, but Samsung, being Samsung, has activated the slower shooting mode by default.
The image stabilization mode feature is useful if you take photos on the go, but not in the everyday.
Then open the camera app, tap the gear icon to open the settings and make sure that stabilization mode is turned off.
7) Turn off animations on the Edge edges
Since the Galaxy S7 Edge, Samsung has used the "Edge Panels", small menus on the side of the display that add functionality.
If you don't use Edge Panels, you can turn them off in Settings> Display> Screen Edges then tap the "Edge Panels" switch to turn them off.
8) Customize (or Deactivate) the always-on display
The always-on function is a way to read information on the phone screen at any time, without having to touch it.
On any Galaxy phone that includes the "always on" or "Always On Display" function, you can change some options to make it even more useful.
To customize this feature, go to Settings> Lock Screen and Security> Always On Display .
Here, you can customize the program when to keep it active (at what time of day or night), the brightness level and the content to be shown.
In Settings> Lock screen and security> Information and FaceWidgets you can change the style of the watch, as well as the widgets that appear on the Always On display, which for some reason, Samsung calls "FaceWidgets".
The function can also be deactivated by turning off the switch.
9) Set the navigation bar to the "correct" layout
Most Android phones have the bottom buttons in the following Back-Home-Recent order.
On the Samsung Galaxy instead the buttons at the bottom are in reverse order: Recent-Home-back.
This can be changed by going to Settings> Display> Navigation bar> Layout .
If there are other problems, let people know in the comments.
