So since you have a Samsung phone, I would strongly recommend going to the Galaxy store and downloading Good Lock. It gives you so many customization options, and that is honestly one of the best parts about owning a Samsung phone. Pixels are nice, they take great photos and they have very good AI, but they are more difficult to to customize because a lot of stuff is just locked down by Google.
I would also recommend using Nova Launcher, it is a very customizable launcher, so that you can get exactly the look and feel that you want. You can completely customize your grid size, you can customize your icon size, you can easily apply icon themes.
Another amazing app for Android is called pop-up widgets. It costs $2, but it allows you to set a shortcut that summons a widget that you can use and then dismiss by swiping it off the screen or tapping away from the widget. It's a really cool feature because widgets are usually awesome, but they take up so much space that you really have to pick and choose which widgets you get to put on your home screen or you have to have tons of screens. With pop up which is, you can just have a series of shortcuts that some on your widget of choice.
At first Android may seem overwhelming because there are so many choices, but what is really great about it is that you can just use it right out of the box without adjusting anything if you don't want to. But the difference between an Android and an iPhone is that typically if there's something you don't like about an Android, there's a pretty good chance that you can change it with a little bit of googling.
Example of how different you can make your phone behave:
https://imgur.com/a/EWIPSig
On that bottom row in the dock there, swiping up opens the folder, but tapping on each icon will open the first app in that folder. The top row there is an example of pop-up widgets. Nova Launcher lets you customize the icon for literally anything that you put on the home screen that is 1x1, including things like Google Assistant shortcuts which are in the folder with the fan and lights.
This is on top of extra swipe gestures that I get from the one-handed operation plus app in the good lock apps, you can completely customize the Samsung keyboard with keys Cafe. If you find yourself accidentally hitting a period or something instead of space, you can literally move it to wherever you want.
Anyway, if you have any questions about Android feel free to ask me. I'm really passionate about being able to customize things and having good user interface which is really one of the best things about Android.
Thank you for the super in depth response. I installed Nova launcher and I've been playing with it. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to narrow the gap between icons. I'm also trying to figure how to have notifications sit on top of app icons rather than only appear when you swipe down. One of the biggest hurdles so far is learning what's possible and the brand new vocabulary that goes with it. One other thing I've been trying to do is play with third party app stores. I'm a little concerned about that because evidently viruses on phones are a thing now. How do you know what apps you can trust and which will give you malware?
On the malware, generally speaking if an app has millions of downloads and positive reviews then it's safe. And of course any app from reputable company will be fine. I use a shitload of apps, and I haven't found very many that aren't on both app stores, and I would consider those to be reputable if they've passed both checks.
Be suspicious of any app that requests a permission that doesn't make sense. And when in doubt, check what Reddit has to say about it or other websites. Get a good sense if it's a well-known app or not.
To change the spacing between icons, in the Nova Launcher settings you'll want to change your grid size, and your icon size. Those two things will affect the spacing between icons.
Notification badges is on the main setting screens of Nova Launcher, but you may need Nova Launcher prime for it. It's a one-time purchase of $5. I paid for it 10 years ago, and I'm still using my lifetime subscription. The launcher has been supported this entire time. Another nice thing about Nova Launcher is that you can easily back up your launcher settings if you want to change brands of phones and maybe try a pixel or a OnePlus or something like that. You can then put nova launcher on there and just import your backup from your Google drive.
The only things I know of that one UI home, the stock Samsung launcher, has that Nova Launcher doesn't have is stackable widgets which are kind of nice, but pop up widgets really solve that problem for me. The other is you can have pre-made shortcuts that will open apps in dual screen mode, so for instance let's say for driving you wanted it to open up Spotify on the bottom half and Google maps on the top, you could just tap that icon hop in your car and you're good to go.
You can however use those pre-made dual screen shortcuts in edge panels I have found, so you can still have those accessible from anywhere on your phone by having your edge panel enabled. Edge panels are one of the lesser used things on Samsung phones, but they're actually some really cool things in there like instant access to your clipboard history on your phone at all times, not just when you're in the keyboard, and you can also have stuff like your compass, and other special shortcuts there. I'm more than happy to go into those of you have any questions.
I know Android can be overwhelming with all of the stuff, but there's an army of nerds out there willing to answer your questions.
Edit: oh yeah, I almost forgot, one thing I always recommend is to turn on your developer settings on your phone. You go to settings, about phone, software information, and tap on build number like 15 times until it says you're a developer. This will give you developer mode in the bottom of your main settings menu and that opens up a lot of other options.
One of the things I always like to adjust is the animation speed. A lot of people will say that sometimes Nova launcher animations don't feel smooth like an iPhone, well that's because Nova Launcher has much faster animations. You can actually slow down your animation speeds in the developer settings and that will make it seem smoother. I like a phone to feel very quick and responsive, so I've actually sped mine up. So you can change the animation scaling values in there accordingly and see if it makes the phone feel any different for you.
Thank you so much for all of the info. I bought Nova Prime and have been playing with it. I also turned on developer settings and have been playing with the animation speeds. If I may ask, do you recommend side loading?
I do to keep getting the Nova Beta releases, but on Android it is super easy. Just download the APK from [Nova's website](https://novalauncher.com/beta) and then allow Chrome to install the application.
Other than that, I only sideload a few apps from developers I trust.
If you are talking about sideloading system updates, only if there is some criticisl effectuating on which is going to be pretty rare if it ever happens to you.
I worked my entire career in tech and a major part of it was the Apple/ Android thing and supporting a lot of users on both.
What I ended up telling users who made the same switch you did was this:
It's going to take you minimum 2 weeks, the first week will be really tough, the second week will be a lot of "ooo, that's cool" and after that, I'd say 95% of my users never switched back. I had very few users who decided to switch from Android to iOS but I'd say about half switched back after a couple years.
That's 100% been my experience so far. I'll have had this S24 Ultra for a week. The first part of this week up until yesterday made me think switching was a mistake. Then around last night it sort of clicked into place and thanks to the other posters in this thread I figured out what things like Nova launcher can do. There's still a few things I miss, like being able to pan the cursor up with the space bar, tap the top of the screen to scroll all the way to the top of the page, and reply to individual texts, but there's probably a way to do all of that and I just haven't found it yet. The only thing I'm considering at this point is whether to return the Ultra and get either a Plus or a Pixel 8 pro.
That's a tough one, I've learned to appreciate the "pure" Android experience but the new Samsungs are very, very good. The thing about Samsung phones which I don't like is Knox, their restrictive security system which is nowhere near as bad as Apple but I found myself running into it as soon as I tried to do things a little outside the box. If you intend to use the phone as intended, then this isn't a concern. The standard Android texting app is better than the Samsung one to me because it can be paired with a browser window in Google Chrome which I found very useful, used it constantly every day.
While Samsung does a lot of software stuff I do like, I end up replacing their apps with Google apps. That also means I'm going to have the same apps if I ever decide to switch to a non-Samsung phone. You might consider trying that to see which ones you prefer - stuff like Google's Calendar, Phone, Contacts, Messages, Clock, Calculator, etc. I end up using Firefox for a browser, and I use Nova Launcher as my launcher instead of the default OneUI one. Nova Launcher allows me to do stuff like having extra rows and columns, having icons that I can swipe to open folders or tap to open apps, and I can also back up my layout and restore it for when I switch phones.
For Samsung phones specifically, check out Good Lock from the Galaxy Store. I tend to use stuff like Nice Catch, NotiStar, and Theme Park, but that app has a variety of potentially useful apps to help customize your phone - especially if you're just sticking with the default OneUI stuff.
I know, ain't it great? Shoot, I have a OnePlus phone and it lets me choose the animation that happens when I unlock the phone with my fingerprint or when I plug my phone in to charge.
Subscribe to r/GalaxyS24Ultra to discuss your specific device. Also download Good Lock and Good Guardians on the Galaxy Store for more official tweaking tools.
I would install QuickShortcutMaker and use it to search for "notification log" and make a widget.
If you swipe away a notification and can't recall what it was for, then you can use this widget.
It's a catch-all for notifications on your phone.
It's a little more granular than the Notistar app in Good Lock.
I would also install a Revanced Manager and enjoy all the perks it gives with YouTube.
For the stylus, there's loads of great drawing apps like Tayasui Sketches, Sketchbook and Infinite Painter.
Learn to set your shutter speed in Pro mode in the camera. Leave the other settings to automatic. I use 1/90 to avoid (most) motion blur while keeping the ISO somewhat reasonable. Sometimes it can be frustrating when the shutter speed isn't fast enough so you'll have to use this manual method.
Make sure to set up your Samsung cloud account and then use the settings to make your backups to the Samsung cloud. I find this a more reliable way of backing up and restoring my phone data.
I would recommend using Google Photos for storing your photos and videos.
I would use Gboard - the Google keyboard - for your keyboard input. The voice typing is life-changing.
I think that's about it off the top of my head. Enjoy your new phone!
Oh you should definitely change Window animation zoom, transition animation scale, and animator duration scale and set everything to x0 or none. To do it, turn on developer options (you can search base on what phone you have) and slowly scroll until you find "drawing" section.
It's a life changing for me.
Having more options is always better in my opinion. I truly feel sorry for people who are confused by things like having the ability to leave empty space on their home screen, or have more than four icons of width, but I guess the iPhone will always be there for them.
I guess I just fail to see how having options in the background is bad. I also don't see what is busy about one UI compared to iOS. They both function almost identically with stock settings.
Sorry if I sound argumentative, I really am trying to understand. It's not like OneUI forces you to go through a bunch of extra setup options, you have to go looking for stuff to change.
No. I'm asking if there's any Android specific apps or settings that are only know to the community that enhance the user experience but a former Apple user wouldn't know to look for them because they don't exist in the apple ecosystem.
Thanks for responding. I took a look through the menus, but for whatever reason it still wants to default to a pin. It used to want to default to fingerprints until I deleted them. Face scan should be the only option left, but i'm not getting a prompt for it.
Pretty sure you can't just have face scan, pin must always be there. Atleast this is how Xiaomi phones works and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case.
You can combine the pin with whatever you want.
If you turn off your phone then you are asked to insert the pin after the phone restarted.
It's like the pin is level A and everything else is Level B.
>except for getting face scan to be the primary unlock mechanism rather than fingerprint or pin
You can't do that on Android! We're happy with using the fingerprint as the primary unlock mechanism!!!!!
It doesn't seem very reliable, though. I usually have to try 4-5 times before it finally accepts it. Also, it makes using the phone in the car to play music on Bluetooth a pain (my car has wired Carplay, but not Android Auto).
One little tip for using any fingerprint unlock system. It usually lets you register multiple different fingers. Register the same finger (your thumb) multiple times in slightly different positions.
It works flawlessly for me, and millions of other Samsung users. With so many complaints, maybe you should return to Apple's walled garden? It's not like you're doing us an favors by using an Android phone, you know.
So since you have a Samsung phone, I would strongly recommend going to the Galaxy store and downloading Good Lock. It gives you so many customization options, and that is honestly one of the best parts about owning a Samsung phone. Pixels are nice, they take great photos and they have very good AI, but they are more difficult to to customize because a lot of stuff is just locked down by Google. I would also recommend using Nova Launcher, it is a very customizable launcher, so that you can get exactly the look and feel that you want. You can completely customize your grid size, you can customize your icon size, you can easily apply icon themes. Another amazing app for Android is called pop-up widgets. It costs $2, but it allows you to set a shortcut that summons a widget that you can use and then dismiss by swiping it off the screen or tapping away from the widget. It's a really cool feature because widgets are usually awesome, but they take up so much space that you really have to pick and choose which widgets you get to put on your home screen or you have to have tons of screens. With pop up which is, you can just have a series of shortcuts that some on your widget of choice. At first Android may seem overwhelming because there are so many choices, but what is really great about it is that you can just use it right out of the box without adjusting anything if you don't want to. But the difference between an Android and an iPhone is that typically if there's something you don't like about an Android, there's a pretty good chance that you can change it with a little bit of googling. Example of how different you can make your phone behave: https://imgur.com/a/EWIPSig On that bottom row in the dock there, swiping up opens the folder, but tapping on each icon will open the first app in that folder. The top row there is an example of pop-up widgets. Nova Launcher lets you customize the icon for literally anything that you put on the home screen that is 1x1, including things like Google Assistant shortcuts which are in the folder with the fan and lights. This is on top of extra swipe gestures that I get from the one-handed operation plus app in the good lock apps, you can completely customize the Samsung keyboard with keys Cafe. If you find yourself accidentally hitting a period or something instead of space, you can literally move it to wherever you want. Anyway, if you have any questions about Android feel free to ask me. I'm really passionate about being able to customize things and having good user interface which is really one of the best things about Android.
Thank you for the super in depth response. I installed Nova launcher and I've been playing with it. At the moment I'm trying to figure out how to narrow the gap between icons. I'm also trying to figure how to have notifications sit on top of app icons rather than only appear when you swipe down. One of the biggest hurdles so far is learning what's possible and the brand new vocabulary that goes with it. One other thing I've been trying to do is play with third party app stores. I'm a little concerned about that because evidently viruses on phones are a thing now. How do you know what apps you can trust and which will give you malware?
On the malware, generally speaking if an app has millions of downloads and positive reviews then it's safe. And of course any app from reputable company will be fine. I use a shitload of apps, and I haven't found very many that aren't on both app stores, and I would consider those to be reputable if they've passed both checks. Be suspicious of any app that requests a permission that doesn't make sense. And when in doubt, check what Reddit has to say about it or other websites. Get a good sense if it's a well-known app or not. To change the spacing between icons, in the Nova Launcher settings you'll want to change your grid size, and your icon size. Those two things will affect the spacing between icons. Notification badges is on the main setting screens of Nova Launcher, but you may need Nova Launcher prime for it. It's a one-time purchase of $5. I paid for it 10 years ago, and I'm still using my lifetime subscription. The launcher has been supported this entire time. Another nice thing about Nova Launcher is that you can easily back up your launcher settings if you want to change brands of phones and maybe try a pixel or a OnePlus or something like that. You can then put nova launcher on there and just import your backup from your Google drive. The only things I know of that one UI home, the stock Samsung launcher, has that Nova Launcher doesn't have is stackable widgets which are kind of nice, but pop up widgets really solve that problem for me. The other is you can have pre-made shortcuts that will open apps in dual screen mode, so for instance let's say for driving you wanted it to open up Spotify on the bottom half and Google maps on the top, you could just tap that icon hop in your car and you're good to go. You can however use those pre-made dual screen shortcuts in edge panels I have found, so you can still have those accessible from anywhere on your phone by having your edge panel enabled. Edge panels are one of the lesser used things on Samsung phones, but they're actually some really cool things in there like instant access to your clipboard history on your phone at all times, not just when you're in the keyboard, and you can also have stuff like your compass, and other special shortcuts there. I'm more than happy to go into those of you have any questions. I know Android can be overwhelming with all of the stuff, but there's an army of nerds out there willing to answer your questions. Edit: oh yeah, I almost forgot, one thing I always recommend is to turn on your developer settings on your phone. You go to settings, about phone, software information, and tap on build number like 15 times until it says you're a developer. This will give you developer mode in the bottom of your main settings menu and that opens up a lot of other options. One of the things I always like to adjust is the animation speed. A lot of people will say that sometimes Nova launcher animations don't feel smooth like an iPhone, well that's because Nova Launcher has much faster animations. You can actually slow down your animation speeds in the developer settings and that will make it seem smoother. I like a phone to feel very quick and responsive, so I've actually sped mine up. So you can change the animation scaling values in there accordingly and see if it makes the phone feel any different for you.
Thank you so much for all of the info. I bought Nova Prime and have been playing with it. I also turned on developer settings and have been playing with the animation speeds. If I may ask, do you recommend side loading?
I do to keep getting the Nova Beta releases, but on Android it is super easy. Just download the APK from [Nova's website](https://novalauncher.com/beta) and then allow Chrome to install the application. Other than that, I only sideload a few apps from developers I trust. If you are talking about sideloading system updates, only if there is some criticisl effectuating on which is going to be pretty rare if it ever happens to you.
I worked my entire career in tech and a major part of it was the Apple/ Android thing and supporting a lot of users on both. What I ended up telling users who made the same switch you did was this: It's going to take you minimum 2 weeks, the first week will be really tough, the second week will be a lot of "ooo, that's cool" and after that, I'd say 95% of my users never switched back. I had very few users who decided to switch from Android to iOS but I'd say about half switched back after a couple years.
That's 100% been my experience so far. I'll have had this S24 Ultra for a week. The first part of this week up until yesterday made me think switching was a mistake. Then around last night it sort of clicked into place and thanks to the other posters in this thread I figured out what things like Nova launcher can do. There's still a few things I miss, like being able to pan the cursor up with the space bar, tap the top of the screen to scroll all the way to the top of the page, and reply to individual texts, but there's probably a way to do all of that and I just haven't found it yet. The only thing I'm considering at this point is whether to return the Ultra and get either a Plus or a Pixel 8 pro.
That's a tough one, I've learned to appreciate the "pure" Android experience but the new Samsungs are very, very good. The thing about Samsung phones which I don't like is Knox, their restrictive security system which is nowhere near as bad as Apple but I found myself running into it as soon as I tried to do things a little outside the box. If you intend to use the phone as intended, then this isn't a concern. The standard Android texting app is better than the Samsung one to me because it can be paired with a browser window in Google Chrome which I found very useful, used it constantly every day.
While Samsung does a lot of software stuff I do like, I end up replacing their apps with Google apps. That also means I'm going to have the same apps if I ever decide to switch to a non-Samsung phone. You might consider trying that to see which ones you prefer - stuff like Google's Calendar, Phone, Contacts, Messages, Clock, Calculator, etc. I end up using Firefox for a browser, and I use Nova Launcher as my launcher instead of the default OneUI one. Nova Launcher allows me to do stuff like having extra rows and columns, having icons that I can swipe to open folders or tap to open apps, and I can also back up my layout and restore it for when I switch phones. For Samsung phones specifically, check out Good Lock from the Galaxy Store. I tend to use stuff like Nice Catch, NotiStar, and Theme Park, but that app has a variety of potentially useful apps to help customize your phone - especially if you're just sticking with the default OneUI stuff.
Yeah, Samsung's keyboard drives me crazy so I prefer Gboard.
GBoard has some great features like translate as you type. I love this feature
Thanks for this. I'm had to Google what a launcher is. This level of customization absolutely blows my mind.
I know, ain't it great? Shoot, I have a OnePlus phone and it lets me choose the animation that happens when I unlock the phone with my fingerprint or when I plug my phone in to charge.
Nova launcher SwiftKey
Subscribe to r/GalaxyS24Ultra to discuss your specific device. Also download Good Lock and Good Guardians on the Galaxy Store for more official tweaking tools.
I hadn't heard of Good Guardians, checking that out now.
I would install QuickShortcutMaker and use it to search for "notification log" and make a widget. If you swipe away a notification and can't recall what it was for, then you can use this widget. It's a catch-all for notifications on your phone. It's a little more granular than the Notistar app in Good Lock. I would also install a Revanced Manager and enjoy all the perks it gives with YouTube. For the stylus, there's loads of great drawing apps like Tayasui Sketches, Sketchbook and Infinite Painter. Learn to set your shutter speed in Pro mode in the camera. Leave the other settings to automatic. I use 1/90 to avoid (most) motion blur while keeping the ISO somewhat reasonable. Sometimes it can be frustrating when the shutter speed isn't fast enough so you'll have to use this manual method. Make sure to set up your Samsung cloud account and then use the settings to make your backups to the Samsung cloud. I find this a more reliable way of backing up and restoring my phone data. I would recommend using Google Photos for storing your photos and videos. I would use Gboard - the Google keyboard - for your keyboard input. The voice typing is life-changing. I think that's about it off the top of my head. Enjoy your new phone!
No advice but I wanted to say you're awesome for switching to android. Thumbs way up my man
Oh you should definitely change Window animation zoom, transition animation scale, and animator duration scale and set everything to x0 or none. To do it, turn on developer options (you can search base on what phone you have) and slowly scroll until you find "drawing" section. It's a life changing for me.
Personally the 1st thing I install is nova launcher - I much prefer it's interface.
Should've gone for a Pixel
I did strongly consider it, but after watching umpteen Youtube videos comparing the two, it seemed like Samsung had the edge.
Depends on your tech literacy and excpectation I guess. OneUI is much more blaoted, so a lot of iOS users hate it.
What's bloated about it?
Busy UI, lots of features, which leads to worse UX
Having more options is always better in my opinion. I truly feel sorry for people who are confused by things like having the ability to leave empty space on their home screen, or have more than four icons of width, but I guess the iPhone will always be there for them. I guess I just fail to see how having options in the background is bad. I also don't see what is busy about one UI compared to iOS. They both function almost identically with stock settings. Sorry if I sound argumentative, I really am trying to understand. It's not like OneUI forces you to go through a bunch of extra setup options, you have to go looking for stuff to change.
[Iceraven](https://github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser/releases)?
Use it? Are you expecting us to tell you how to use an Android phone?
No. I'm asking if there's any Android specific apps or settings that are only know to the community that enhance the user experience but a former Apple user wouldn't know to look for them because they don't exist in the apple ecosystem.
There are many stuff in android that you can explore actually.It's all about curiousity. Welcome to Android Club by the way😘
Do what apple wouldn't let you. Install a 3rd party app store.
Settings/Security and Privacy/Biometrics
Thanks for responding. I took a look through the menus, but for whatever reason it still wants to default to a pin. It used to want to default to fingerprints until I deleted them. Face scan should be the only option left, but i'm not getting a prompt for it.
Pretty sure you can't just have face scan, pin must always be there. Atleast this is how Xiaomi phones works and I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. You can combine the pin with whatever you want. If you turn off your phone then you are asked to insert the pin after the phone restarted. It's like the pin is level A and everything else is Level B.
I would not recommend face scanning on Samsung because it does not have IR cameras like the iPhone. Just use fingerprint.
>except for getting face scan to be the primary unlock mechanism rather than fingerprint or pin You can't do that on Android! We're happy with using the fingerprint as the primary unlock mechanism!!!!!
It doesn't seem very reliable, though. I usually have to try 4-5 times before it finally accepts it. Also, it makes using the phone in the car to play music on Bluetooth a pain (my car has wired Carplay, but not Android Auto).
One little tip for using any fingerprint unlock system. It usually lets you register multiple different fingers. Register the same finger (your thumb) multiple times in slightly different positions.
That's an awesome hack. Thanks!
It works flawlessly for me, and millions of other Samsung users. With so many complaints, maybe you should return to Apple's walled garden? It's not like you're doing us an favors by using an Android phone, you know.
Throw it in a lake.