I have some tips, tricks, and a few interesting notes about 2016’s most impressive Android phone so far. If you want to get the most out of the Galaxy S7, these are tips you need to have on your mind.
Tips for Easier Use and Convenience
There are a few settings you can toggle, and a few options to tweak, to make your Galaxy S7 experience smoother. If you follow these tips after using your phone for an extended time, you’ll notice an increase in speed, battery life, and most importantly of all, convenience.
1. Edit Your App Drawer
If you haven’t changed your app drawer around from its initial setup, you’ll notice you have apps grouped up awkwardly in different folders. This can make finding specific apps difficult if you aren’t already adjusted. To remove these folders:
Tap the Edit. buttonThen tap the folder that you want to removeOnce tapped, the apps in that folder will be added to the main list to be discovered easily
Additionally, you can change the color of a folder by opening it, and then tapping a different color in the color palette in the right hand corner.
2. Disable the Briefing Screen
The briefing screen is a TouchWiz feature that some Galaxy S7 carries have disabled by default. That should clue you in on its usefulness. If you’re one of the unlucky few with it still enabled, here’s how to get rid of it:
On the home screen, do a pinching gesture, or a long press.This will put you in Edit Mode. Now scroll over to left where you see Briefing.There’s a checkbox that should either be checked, or left empty. If you want to turn it off, tap the box to leave it empty.
Briefing is a pretty clunky program, despite improvements to TouchWiz, so it’s better left turned off.
3. Set Multiple Fingerprints
Scanning your fingerprint isn’t anything new with Samsung devices, but setting up a few fingerprint scans is always recommended. This can be done from the Lockscreen and security menu in your Settings. Once you’ve reached the new menu, go to Fingerprints and read the instructions to begin scanning. Fingerprint recognition is constantly on the rise in being a viable security measure, so take advantage of this when you can.
4. Turn Off Bloatware Apps
While you can’t completely remove bloated apps from your device without rooting, you can disable most of them. Under Apps, you can select any app you don’t want running in the background. Once you’ve selected the offending app, you can tab Disable in the upper left corner. This will do just what the command says, and save you the headache of seeing it perform.
5. Toggle the Download Booster
This next tip is a mobile data consuming fiend, and should only be used if you have plenty of bandwidth to spare. You can find the option in your More connection settings section. It effectively ties all your connection sources together to squeeze them for all they’re worth, increasing your speeds dramatically. Unfortunately, it also dramatically increases your data usage if you normally have to keep that on a tight leash. Use this at your own discretion!
6. Make Use of the Sound Equalizer
The sound quality on the S7, at least initially, isn’t as stellar as the phone itself. You can thankfully fix this with the built-in sound equalizer.To enable the equalizer:
Navigate to your Settings, and then Sound quality and effectsUnderneath Sound and Notification you’ll find the Equalizer settings.
The equalizer won’t boost the mono speaker’s quality too much, but if you have a good pair of headphones, use this to get the best sound out of your S7 possible.
7. Turn on One Handed Operation
One handed operation is a mode you can toggle on and off which makes one handed use much easier. To toggle the mode:
Navigate to your Settings, and then to Advanced features.At the top of the new menu will be One-handed mode.
When activated, this mode can be toggled by triple pressing the Home key.
Tips for the Camera and Pictures
The camera that comes packed with the Samsung Galaxy S7 isn’t a massive improvement over the S6, but the S6 camera was already stunning. If you want to make the most of your shots, I have some tips that will help.
8. Take Advantage of Pro Mode
Pro Mode enables different camera options to really bring the most out of your Galaxy S7. With your camera open, tap the Mode button in the lower right corner in horizontal orientation.
9. Use the Quick Launch Gesture
Being able to snap a picture quickly is essential for any shutterbug. If you tap the Home Key twice you’ll be brought right to the camera screen.
10. Enable RAW image capture
The Galaxy S7 can capture images in RAW format, which can be used in programs like Snapseed If you’ve never used RAW images before, you’ll see the noticeable increase in quality while editing.
11. A Selfie Flash without a Front Facing Light
While the Galaxy S7 doesn’t have a front facing light, it does have the next best thing. When taking a selfie, the Galaxy S7’s screen flashes a bright white. Since the Galaxy S7 already has a vibrant screen, this works just as well.
12. Access Screenshots Easily with Smart Capture
With Smart Capture, you can edit or share screenshots quickly after taking them. You can open the Smart Capture menu by tapping the icons above the horizontal dots displayed after capture.
13. Take Motion Photos
If you’re familiar with Apple Live Photos, this is a similar service. In your camera modes you can enable Motion Photos by tapping the settings wheel. Once this setting is enabled, you can view any recently capture picture in your gallery as a Motion Photo. You can do this by tapping the Motion Photo icon on a picture. When pressed, you’ll see a short video of the taken picture, letting you snap a shot of anything in the video. The resolution will be reduced, but this is just incase you barely miss your intended snapshot.
Tips to Customize Your S7 Experience
Even without downloading additional software or ROMs, you can customize your Galaxy S7 to make it feel unique. Aside from personal touches, you can customize your S7 for additional ease of access to create the best Android environment possible.
14. Customize Your Always-on Display
Love it or hate it, the Always-on Display can thankfully be customized to each user’s needs. To customize the display:
Navigate to your Settings.Now go to Display, and then Always-on display.
From here you can change what’s displayed, and the style the Always-on display is presented in. Unfortunately, you can’t use your own custom images, but you can download more themes in your Themes and settings.
15. Change the Way Color is Displayed
The Galaxy S7 has a beautifully vibrant screen, in some cases, a little too vibrant. If bright colors aren’t your thing, the Galaxy S7 screen can be further muted. To do this:
Navigate to your Display settings.From here you can change the screen mode to better suit your eyes and tastes.
There are plenty of different modes to choose from, so experiment until you find the right one for you.
16. Use Multi-Window Mode
If you aren’t running Android N, the Galaxy S7’s Multi-Window Mode is a decent substitute for the multi-window experience. This will put your phone into split screen mode to run multiple apps at the same time. To switch to Multi-Window Mode, long press the overview button. While in this mode you can drag the dots in the middle to increase the size of one window, and decrease the size of the other. You can switch between both apps freely, making this extremely useful for multitasking.
17. Resize and Move Home Screens
To further increase the level of customization power each user has with their S7, you can resize and move home screens at will. To do this: Long press, or use the pinching gesture on the home screen you want to resize or move to enter edit mode.
Now you can drag the home screen to somewhere different, or tap the grid icon to increase or decrease the size.
18. Take Advantage of a New Way to Move Apps
While you’re moving apps from one place to another, there’s a helpful Move apps icon at the top of the screen. If you drag an app over to the icon, it will sit there temporarily while you decide which home screen will be its new home. This bar can hold as many apps as you need it to, so don’t be afraid to load it up.
19. Give Samsung Pay a Try
Samsung Pay is the Samsung only alternative to Android Pay. However, it isn’t just a reskin. Samsung Pay works off of fingerprint technology to authorize payments, and is available in many retail locations. If you’ve been deciding between Android Pay or Google Wallet for your S7, I would take Samsung Pay if only because of its widespread availability.
20. Quickly Access or Change Your Games
If you’re a big mobile gamer, the S7’s gaming launcher will keep your games in reach at a moment’s notice. You can activate it by:
Navigate to your Advanced features.Tap Games near the top.Here you can enable the Game Launcher and Game Tools to improve your experience.
21. Unlock Your Bootloader
This is a tip that won’t initially provide customization options, but opens the door for your Galaxy S7 to become the best phone possible. Once your bootloader is unlocked, you’re able to root your phone, install custom ROMs, and do anything with the phone you truly own.
Tips for Better Battery Life
Despite complaints from a few users the Galaxy S7’s battery is a top performer across the board. If you want to make that great battery even better, here are a few tips to always keep in mind. If these tips aren’t enough to conserve your battery, there’s always outside help to lend a hand.
22. Install a Package Disabler
This goes hand in hand with the tip about bloatware, but now you’ll be disabling those pesky apps with another useful one. I recommend using Package Disabler Pro, it costs $1.95, but you won’t need to root your phone to get rid of the bloat.
23. Setup Battery Optimization
With the Galaxy S7’s built in battery optimization, you can optimize your apps to use as little battery as possible. You can do this by going into your Battery settings from System Settings. You’ll need to tap MORE in the upper right corner, and then you’ll have access to app optimization.
24. Turn on Power Saving or Ultra Power Saving Mode
If you ever find your battery low, and need your phone to last through the rest of the day, it’s time to turn on Power Saving mode. Much like in tip 23, go to your Battery settings. Here you can see Power Saving mode, and Ultra Power Saving mode. Both of these modes will decrease phone performance and capability to conserve battery.
25. When in Doubt, Root
This tip doesn’t need much explanation, and I can mention at least five reasons why you should root the Galaxy S7. After rooting, the list of tips, tricks, and hacks available for the Galaxy S7 never stop.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S7 is without a doubt, an amazing phone, with a great amount of amazing features. Hopefully, with these tips in hand, you can bring out the best in those features and let your phone shine. Do you have any great S7 tips no one else knows about? You can leave them in the contents below, along with any questions you have. If curved screens are more your speed, take a look at all the features the Galaxy S7 Edge sports. Featured Image Credit
