12 Samsung Galaxy Phone Settings You Should Always Change
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Your Samsung phone is packed with useful features, but many aren’t turned on by default. Changing these settings will allow you to get the most out of your Samsung phone and make your life much easier.
1Turn On Wi-Fi Calling
Wi-Fi calling improves the voice quality of phone calls by allowing you to make and receive calls over Wi-Fi when a mobile signal is weak or not available. Here’s how you can enable it on your Galaxy phone:
2Use Google Password Manager for Autofill Services
Password managers are used to save, create, and manage passwords for apps or websites. There are plenty of options available on the internet, but Google Password Manager remains one of the best as it’s reliable, works on both desktop and mobile devices, and is free to use.
In Samsung Galaxy phones, Samsung Pass is the default option for autofill services, but you can easily switch to Google Password Manager by following these instructions.
If you want to learn about managing saved passwords or have never used a password manager before, ourguide to Google Password Managershould help.
3Disable Personalized Ads
From browsing the web or shopping online, your phone collects so much data and uses it to show you personalized ads. These ads are admittedly more relevant when compared to regular ones, but if you’re uncomfortable with your data being used in this way, you can disable them completely.
To disable them, go toSettings > Security and privacy > More privacy settingsand toggle offAndroid personalization service.
For a more permanent solution, you can learn how todisable system ads and offers on Samsung. You might also want to learn how todisable Google’s personalized adson your desktop.
4Set the Side Button to Launch the Power Off Menu
Long-pressing the side button (aka power button) launchesSamsung’s Bixby voice assistantby default. This isn’t always intuitive since you’d expect the button to launch the power-off menu. On Samsung, you have to set that up manually.
To do this, go toSettings > Advanced features > Side buttonand tapPower off menuunder Press and hold.
5Customize Sleeping Apps
To save battery or improve performance, One UI will place apps you don’t use that often into a sleeping mode so they can’t use resources in the background. This is a fantastic feature, but if you dismiss an app while working on something, and it goes to sleep, your work will be lost.
To prevent this, One UI has an option for customizing sleeping apps. it’s possible to manage apps for sleeping mode on your Samsung Galaxy phone by going toSettings > Battery and device care > Battery > Background usage limitsand toggling offPut unused apps to sleep.
This action may result in increased battery usage and degrading performance, so if you want to disable deep sleep only for a limited number of apps, tap onSleeping appsand manually remove the apps from the list. You can easilyconfigure which apps you want to sleep.
6Enable Floating Notifications
Floating notifications help you multitask by transforming the conversation notification of compatible apps into a bubble or popup that it’s possible to place anywhere on the screen, even on top of other apps. Here’s how to enable them on your Samsung smartphone.
7Set Up Emergency Contacts and Enable SOS
You canset up emergency contacts on your Samsung phoneto show up on your Lock screen for quick access. Calling these contacts doesn’t require unlocking your phone, so if you’re ever in an emergency and unable to contact your loved ones, first responders can still help you out.
To set this up:
While you’re at it, you should also enable Emergency SOS, which sends a text to your emergency contacts containing your location and an SOS message when you press the power button quickly three times to call your local emergency services. To enable this, go toSettings > Safety and emergency > Emergency SOSand toggle onSend SOS to emergency contacts.
8Turn On Find My Device
Find My Device can be used when you could’t remember where you left your phone. It will track your phone through the internet and show you its current location. It can also ring or erase the data on your device with just a few clicks if you’ve lost it instead of simply misplacing it.
Find My Device only works when your device’s location services are on.
9Manage App Permissions
Many of the apps on your phone have access to permissions that are either completely unnecessary for their function or are only needed on rare occasions. For instance, a calendar app has no reason to access to your microphone. Similarly, a food delivery app should only have access to your location when the app is being used, and you’re tracking a delivery.
Granting all permissions to any app that asks for it is a major potential security threat. So, it’s crucial that you view and manage the app permissions on your phone to avoid the same. Here’s how to do this:
10Enable Auto Blocker for Protection Against Potential Threats
Auto Blocker is a security feature that protects your device from potential threats and suspicious activity. It does that by blocking apps installed from unauthorized sources, conducting app security checks, and blocking commands by USB cable.
For additional security, you can also set it to detect and block images suspected of containing malware in messaging apps and block installation of system software via a USB cable.
To enable it, go toSettings > Security and privacy > Auto Blockerand toggle the feature on. At the bottom, toggle onMessaging app protectionandBlock software updates by USB cable.
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Are these tips for specific software versions? My Samsung Android doesn’t have the disable personalized ads option.
Flagship price, mid-range phone.
I didn’t even know this secret menu existed until recently!
Touchscreens stole the spotlight, but these phones built the stage.
Don’t let someone else take over your phone number.
Your phone’s camera app doesn’t show this, so it’s easy to miss.
My iPhone does it all, but I still need my dumb phone.
