16 Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Hidden Features, Tips and Tricks You Should Know

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Samsung recently upgraded its Galaxy S-series with the launch of next-gen Galaxy S9 and S9+. While both devices flaunt a similar-to-S8 design, Samsung duly upgrades the innards of Galaxy S9 and S9+ with latest specs, innovative hardware and a more refined software.

This article is all about that last bit. The Galaxy S9 duo run Samsung’s custom UI, Experience 9.0, employed on top of Android Oreo out of the box. The UI is one of the best-modified versions of Android that offers a plethora of customization options and features to its users.

While some features are easy to find, others are hard to locate. So to help you master your phone, we have compiled some Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus tips and tricks:

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S9+ First Impressions – Improves Core Strength

1. Activate AR Emoji

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Apart from static emojis, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ also offer AR Emoji, which is an animated emojis of yourself. In order to create your emoji avatar just shoot your S9 camera, swipe to AR Emoji, and hit the Create Your Emoji in the blue bubble on the left side of your screen.

Now, just click a picture of you, select your sex, and the phone will process to create an Emoji of your face. You can further customize the AR Emoji’s skin tone, hair, and clothes, and hit OK, once you are satisfied with how your emoji avatar looks.

2. Adjust the Brightness of Always-on-Display

Both Galaxy S9 and S9+ allow users to control the level of brightness of Always-on-Display directly from the lock screen. This will help you better control battery drain. For instance, you could turn the brightness to a minimum during the night or push it to maximum when you are outdoors and will be checking out time, etc. frequently.

To do so, trigger Bixby and command it to open Always-on-Display settings, from there turn off Auto brightness feature. Now, lock your phone wait for the Always-on-display and double tap on the clock, and you will have the brightness bar.

3. Pop-Up View Multitasking

With Galaxy S9 and S9+, you can multitask in two ways. First is the common “Split-screen multitasking” where you divide the screen to operate two apps simultaneously. Second is the picture-in-picture (PiP), which Samsung calls it the Pop-up view that lets you open an app on top of another app.

To enable Pop-up view on Galaxy S9, go to Settings > Advanced Features > Multi-window and tap on the switch for Pop-up view action. After this, swipe diagonally from the top corner of the screen, and the app that you are using will to open in a small window.

4. App-pair for easy multi-tasking

Now, if you frequently use two same apps in multi-tasking then you will love this feature on Galaxy S9 and S9+. The App-Pair feature allows you to permanently pair your favorite split-screen apps together so that you access can them with a single touch. The feature takes the load off from you by pairing the apps again and again.

To do App Pairing on your S9,  drag out the Edge launcherCreate App Pair on Edge Settings and choose the apps, and the shortcut will be created.

5. Enhance Video Quality

Your Galaxy S9 and S9+ have a gorgeous display. Both phones boast a QHD+ (2560×1440 pixels) display with 18.5:9 screen aspect ratio. Consuming multi-media content will be great on these devices, but there is always room for improvement.

With Video Enhancer, under the Advanced Features, you can make the videos more enriching and bright. However, don’t expect it to upscale a low-resolution video into an HD stream.

6. Landscape Mode For Home Screen and App-drawer

In most smartphones, app drawer or home screen is portrait only, but that’s not the case with Galaxy S9 and S9+. Both phones promote landscape mode for home-screen and app-drawer screen as well. The feature allows you to quickly take sneak-peak at your home-screen without changing the orientation of the phone while playing games or watching movies.

To enjoy this feature, head over to Settings > Display > Home Screen, and toggle the Portrait Mode Only switch off.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy S9+ VS Apple iPhone X Specs Comparison

7. Enhance Audio Output

Both Galaxy S9 and S9+ comes with stereo-speaker coupled with Dolby-Atmos for a superior sound experience. However, for some reason, the feature is turned off by default. To enable it, head to Sounds and Vibration settings > Sound quality and effects and switch on the Dolby Atmos.

And by chance you are a music lover, you will love to play with the equalizer settings. It also has multiple modes – UHQ Upscaler, Surround, or the Tube Amplifier Pro – for you to further enrich the sound output of your Galaxy S9 and S9+.

8. Manage App Notifications

The notification alerts on Galaxy S9 and S9+ can be managed with ease. You no longer have to jump from window to window to silent an app notification. All you have to do is slowly slide the notification until you see two options: Settings and Snooze. Tap on the Snooze option and select for how long you want to keep the notification away.

However, if you permanently want to mute the app notification tap on the Settings icon and select the apt option.

Also Check: Make the most of Notification Channels in Android Oreo

9. Connect to WiFi automatically

Both your Galaxy S9 and S9+ have a feature that turns your WiFi on in places that you visit frequently.

To do that, long-tap on the Wi-Fi button and go to Advanced Setting from the three-vertical dots on the top-right corner. From there switch on the Turn on Wi-Fi automatically option.

10. Customize the Edge Panel

The Samsung Edge Panel is a handy feature that gives you quick access to multiple things like your favorite apps, contacts, news you follow, apps last used and a plethora of other shortcuts.

On top of this, you can also customize the edge panel based on your needs. You can either place it on right or left of the screen based on your comfort or add/delete option in your edge panel.

To customize edge panel on your Galaxy S9, bring on the Edge Panel by swiping from the edge of the display and tap on the Settings icon at the right corner. The follow-up screen will allow you to add or delete panel as per your requirement.

11. Boost Your Network Speed

The Download Booster gives Samsung devices, including Galaxy S9 and S9+, an edge when you have to boost the download speed. The mode allows the phone to combine both Wi-Fi and the cellular network to increase download stability and speed.

To achieve that, go to Connections, tap on More Connection Settings and switch on the Download Booster.

12. Create GIF

You can also create a GIF with Galaxy S9 and S9+ phones. Both the devices have a feature called Smart Select that allows you to create an instant Graphics Interchange Format file of whatever you are playing on your screen.

To capture a GIF, swipe from the edge of the display to launch Edge Panel > Go to Smart Select and tap on Animation. A small preview window will appear that will let you record video to create a gif.

13. Personalize Navigational Bar

The Galaxy S9 and S9+ both sport an on-screen navigational button to give way to infinity display with minimal bezels. Unlike the capacitative button bar, the on-screen navigational bar allows you customize it according to your personal taste. You can either change the color of the bar or the layout of the button.

To add your personal taste on the navigational bar of your Galaxy S9, jump to Settings > Display > Navigation bar and adjust it as per your needs.

14. Customize Status Bar

Both Galaxy S9 devices give you an option to even change some of the options on the top display bar. To do so, head over to Settings > Display > Status bar. The screen will give you multiple options, including limiting the notification icons to the last three or switching on/off the battery percentage.

15. Translate Foreign Languages

Your Galaxy S9 and S9+ have the ability to translate the text that is alien to you in your mother tongue. Just shoot your camera and tap on the little Eye icon on the left side of your screen, and select the Text option. You can either tap T-button at the bottom of the screen or hover the camera on the text that you want to translate and it’ll automatically do the work for you. The feature is called Bixby Vision.

You can also use the Bixby Vision to identify tons of other things like wine labels, food, and animals, etc.

16. Enable/Disable Fingerprint Gesture

If you are not fond of fingerprint gestures on your Galaxy S9 and just want to use it for scanning purpose, Go to Settings > Advanced features > Finger sensor gestures and switch the toggle to ON/OFF as per your call.

Best Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ Tips and Tricks You Should Know

While there are thousands of features on Galaxy S9 and S9+, these tips and tricks will at least get you started. Meanwhile, you can also explore the different screen resolutions option, new Always On-Display widgets, and sharing of files via WiFi Direct on both gadgets. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus features can easily be accessed by the search bar on top in the settings menu.

Last Updated on: 16 March 2018

8 Things that Bixby does better than Google Assistant and Siri

Ashish KumarAshish Kumar
He is Journalism graduate, sports lover, and a passionate reader. Just like others his eyes is also filled with dreams and believes that one day those dreams will come true. Cheers!

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3 Comments
User
kjclassic
Anonymous
4 years ago

None of these are ‘hidden’ features. They’re standard tools of Android 9 and Samsung devices in general. Except the edge display.

Reply
User
Hamid sunesara
Anonymous
5 years ago

battery back up very very poor

Reply
User
NIKHIL MISHRA
Anonymous
5 years ago

Detailed nicely. Thanks

Reply