Change Edge Lighting Effects and Colors
By default, Edge lighting shows new notifications with a blue spotlight effect no matter which app sends them. That makes it hard to tell notifications apart without unlocking the screen. Samsung One UI offers several alternative effects and a full color picker to fix that.
Change Contact Name Format
If your contacts list shows names as First Name, Last Name and you would rather see Last Name, First Name, the display setting inside the Contacts app controls that order. This has nothing to do with how a contact was originally saved, so switching the format does not touch any contact data. The change only affects how names appear across Calls and Messages, not the underlying entries or numbers.
Adjust Display Brightness
If your Samsung screen stays too dim or too bright no matter the lighting, the brightness slider might be locked to Adaptive brightness instead of manual control. This drains the battery faster and makes reading outdoors or at night harder than it needs to be. Switching to manual brightness gives you direct control over how much power the display uses.
Set Default Keyboard
Installed a new keyboard app but your Galaxy phone still opens Samsung Keyboard for typing? That happens because a freshly installed keyboard is not automatically allowed to become the default input method. It first has to be switched on in the keyboard manager before the system even offers it as an option.
Restore Deleted Photos from Gallery Trash
A photo or video you thought was gone might still be recoverable on your Samsung phone. The Gallery app keeps deleted files in a hidden Trash folder, but only for a limited time before they are wiped for good. If the recycle bin was switched off or the file is older than the retention window, recovery is no longer possible.
Turn Automatic App Updates On or Off
When apps update themselves in the background without asking, mobile data can disappear fast and storage fills up overnight. On Samsung phones this behavior comes from a Play Store setting, not a system-wide toggle, so it is easy to miss if you are looking in the wrong menu. If you want full control over when apps get new versions, this setting needs to be changed directly inside the Play Store app.
Edge Lighting Display Timing
Edge lighting fires for every notification, whether you are actively looking at the screen or the phone is locked in your pocket. If the glow feels excessive or you barely notice it, the timing setting decides whether it shows during active use, only when the display is off, or in both cases.
Change Font Style
If every menu, notification, and app on your Galaxy phone still shows the same default typeface, the system font hasn't been changed yet. Samsung ships built-in alternatives like 'SamsungOne' and 'Gothic Bold', and the Galaxy Store offers more fonts to download or buy. Until you adjust this setting in Display, the interface keeps the factory look everywhere.
Create a Custom Photo Album
New photos and videos land automatically in fixed albums like Camera or Downloads, depending on which app saved them. If you want to keep certain pictures together instead - for a trip, a project, or a specific person - the built-in sorting will not do that for you. Gallery lets you set up a separate album and move or copy pictures into it manually.
Unmount SD Card Safely
Pulling the memory card out of your Samsung phone while it is still active can corrupt files or wipe data that has not finished syncing. The system needs to release the card first, otherwise apps that store data on it may crash or lose access. A software glitch on the phone can also block the card from unmounting cleanly, leaving you unsure if removal is safe.
Rename an Album in Gallery
When you try to give a photo album a clearer name on your Samsung phone, the option sometimes seems to be missing. This usually happens because system albums like Camera or Downloads cannot be renamed at all. Albums you created yourself or that come from an app can be renamed without any restriction.
Set Up Focus Mode
If your phone keeps buzzing with app notifications while you are trying to work or unwind, the culprit is usually that every app has free access to your screen. Focus mode on Samsung phones can shut off everything except the apps you actually need for a set stretch of time. Without setting it up properly, you either lock too much or nothing at all, which makes the feature feel useless.
Change Keyboard Theme
The Samsung keyboard ships with a light design that can feel too bright when you type at night or in low light. Switching to a dark design keeps the letters legible without lighting up the whole screen. An adaptive theme goes further and matches the keyboard color to whatever app you have open.
Turn Bluetooth On or Off
If your Samsung phone keeps reconnecting to a car stereo or speaker you did not want right now, Bluetooth is still active in the background. Leaving the radio running also uses a small amount of battery even with nothing paired. Switching it off stops these automatic reconnections until you turn it back on.
Change System Settings App Permission
If an app suddenly stops adjusting screen brightness, auto-rotate, or sound profiles on its own, it may be missing the Change system settings permission on your Samsung phone. Blocking this permission stops those automatic adjustments but never touches lock screen or biometric security, since Samsung keeps those separate. You decide per app whether it keeps this special access.
Vibrate While Ringing: Turn On or Off
If your Samsung phone stays silent on the desk during an incoming call, the vibration for ringing is switched off in your sound settings. This toggle controls only the ring vibration, separate from notification vibration or Do Not Disturb rules. Missed calls at work or in a bag often trace back to this single setting.
Hide Notification Pop-ups in Do Not Disturb
Even with Do Not Disturb turned on, notification banners and icons keep popping up on the screen, they just arrive silently. That happens because Do Not Disturb only mutes sound and vibration by default, it does not hide the visual notification itself. If you want your screen to stay completely clear while the mode is active, you need a separate setting for that.
Turn Sticker Suggestions On or Off
Stickers and emoji suggestions from Bitmoji or mojitok can pop up every time you type on a Samsung keyboard, even in apps where you don't want them. This happens because sticker suggestions run as a separate function from regular word prediction. You can also choose which apps are allowed to show these suggestions.
Turn On or Off Automatic QR Code Scanning
If your Samsung camera no longer picks up QR codes while you're in normal photo mode, the automatic QR scanning function is probably switched off. Older Samsung devices used a separate scan mode for this, but current models detect codes directly through the standard camera view. When the option is disabled, pointing the camera at a code does nothing at all.
Install Print Service Plugin
If your printer does not show up when you try to print from your Samsung phone, the built-in print service most likely does not cover your printer model. Samsung ships with a standard print service that works with popular brands, but many manufacturers require their own plugin to print files correctly. Without that plugin, print jobs either fail or the printer never appears as an option.
Apply Camera Filters
Standard shots from the Samsung camera app come out flat and natural, but you want a specific look like black and white, sepia, pale or a warm tone instead. The filter options sit in their own menu that is easy to overlook, and the intensity control for an applied filter goes unnoticed just as often.
Turn Vibrate When Call Ends On or Off
If your Samsung phone buzzes right after a call disconnects, that comes from a separate call alert, not your regular vibration mode. Some people rely on the buzz to notice a dropped call without checking the screen, others find it jarring when it fires during a meeting. The setting sits inside the Phone app rather than the general sound profile, which is why silent mode alone does not always turn it off.
Change SMS Input Mode (GSM or Unicode)
If a single text turns into two or three messages the moment you add an emoji, the input mode set for text messages is the reason. GSM alphabet only covers basic Latin characters, so any emoji or special symbol forces the message to switch encoding and split. Automatic or Unicode mode prevents that, but it can affect how many messages you get billed for.
Add a Printer by IP Address
If a printer never shows up in Samsung's Default Print Service, that model is likely not supported by the built-in driver list. Without a manual entry, print jobs simply fail or the printer never appears as an option. This mostly affects office, network, and older printers that the standard service does not recognize automatically.