Top 9 Lock Screen and Home Screen Tips for Galaxy S10/S10 Plus
The lock screen and home screen are two of the most used screens of our phones. And thanks to the Android customization options, these screens can be easily transformed to suit our purposes. So, if you own a brand new Samsung Galaxy S10 (or S10 Plus), here are a few tips for your phone's home screen and lock screen.
Since it is going to be a long post, let's jump right in.
1. Set Icons in the Lock Screen
Would you want to see all your notifications on the lock screen? I bet not. Fortunately, the Samsung Galaxy S10/S10 Plus gives you options to hide your notifications. You can choose to display a brief message, or only the icons — similar to the Always on Display (AOD) screen.
This way, not only do you get an idea about the notification but you also get to hide the content.
To make these changes, go to Lock Screen settings and select Notifications. Tap on View style and choose Icons only.
Or else, if you really want your notifications to appear on the lock screen, you can make the notification box transparent by dragging the transparency bar to the right.
2. Discover New Sets of Clock Faces
If you have been using a Samsung phone for a while, then you might be bored with its current clock faces. The good news is that Samsung's ClockFace app features several stylish clock faces. From cool speedometers to fancy reading glasses, you'll find plenty of options here. Plus, you can customize the color according to your liking.
Unfortunately, ClockFace isn't available globally. However, you can download the APK file from APK Mirror and get going.
Once you've installed the app, go to Settings > Lock Screen > Clock style and select Always on Display. Scroll left to the end of the screen and tap on the Clock icon, which will show you all the new clock faces.
Just tap on one and hit Apply. Once done, go to the Color tab, pick a color and hit done. Hello new AOD screen!
Similarly, you can also change your phone's lock screen.
3. Get a Quirky Wallpaper
Yes, the hole-punch cutout may look a bit quirky (weird, maybe) but if you have already bought this phone, it's time you embraced the camera cutout wholeheartedly. Ever since its launch, there has been an insane number of wallpapers catering to the camera cutout, especially on Reddit.
I mean c'mon. How can you not. pic.twitter.com/i4Ph5nNj2W
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) March 8, 2019
If you also want your share of such new-age wallpapers, follow the link here.
However, if you'd rather want to settle for a conventional wallpaper, you can check out the ones from Wallpapers Craft. This app has a ton of high-resolution images. Plus, it lets you download a wallpaper in its original resolution.
4. Stylize the Icons
Thankfully, the Google Play Store is no stranger to icon packs and there's no dearth of good icon packs. One of my favorites is the Voxel icon pack. With a simple and flat design, they lend a colorful look to the home screen and app drawer.
But before I get any further let me tell you that the default One UI Home launcher doesn't support icon packs. You'd have to get your hands on a third-party launcher like the Nova Prime to apply the pack. That's a bummer, and I was just starting to like it.
Another icon pack which I love for its simple design is Pixel Pie icon pack. As we mentioned above, both need a launcher to work.
But at the end of the day, if you'd rather stick to One UI Home, the icon packs on the Samsung Store isn't bad either. I particularly liked the Blueberry Dark icon pack.
To discover more icon packs, long-tap on the home screen and select Themes > Icons and select Top. Once you've finalized, download the said pack and hit the Apply button.
My only gripe is that these icons have a weird black border, or have a boxier design.
5. Activate Gestures
With the Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, Samsung has finally joined the gestures party. If you still haven't activated the gestures, go to Display > Navigation bar to enable it.
At the same time, you can also opt to change the button order.
6. Show App Suggestions in Recent Apps
Another change that One UI brings to the Galaxy S10 is the Recent Apps suggestions. And no, I am not talking about the apps suggestion in the app drawer.
All you have to do is pull up the Recents menu (aka the Overview section), and all of your frequently accessed apps will be there at the bottom, saving you plenty of time in the long run.
As expected, this setting isn't enabled by default. To activate it, open the Recents menu and tap on the three-dot buttons at the top-right corner. Select settings and turn on the toggle for Suggested Apps.
7. Add Finder to Home Screen
The Finder is probably one of the best features of One UI. This universal search lets you find apps, calendar events, and settings by default. And much of the Finder settings can be tweaked to suit your taste.
However, the setting that is the most useful is its shortcut setting. Yes, you read that right. You can add a Finder shortcut to your home screen.
To make this change, open the app drawer, tap on the three-dot menu in the search button and select Finder settings.
Now, choose the third option and drag the 1x1 icon to the home screen.
From now on, whenever you need to do a Spotlight-like search, just tap on the Finder icon.
8. Add a Music Controller to Lock Screen
For the music lovers, another must-have feature is the music controller on the lock screen. Thankfully, you needn't take the aid of any third-party apps as the built-in settings are quite capable of pulling it off.
To enable it, head over to the Lock Screen settings > Face Widgets, and toggle the switch for Music.
After that, whenever you launch a music streaming app, its controls will appear on the lock screen as well, and you can access it without waking up the phone. Neat.
9. Prioritize Your Edge Screens
Not all Edge Screens are important, and you must know that well by now. Hence, it only makes sense to order them as per your convenience. So if you want the Apps screen first and then the People screen, you are free to do it.
To make these changes, pull up the Edge Screen and tap on the Settings cog. Once you have chosen which screens to keep, tap on the three-dot menu and select Reorder.
Tame the Lock Screen
Also, you may also want to display an emergency contact number on the screen of your phone. Also, at the same time, long tap on the home screen, tap on Settings to customize the screen as per your wish. The 'Quick-open notification panel' setting really comes in handy.
Next up: Wondering which new apps you should try on your Galaxy S10? Here's the list of the fabulous eight Android apps that are a must-have to use it like a pro.