20 Awesome Galaxy S6 tips and tricks to make you a Samsung master

By Simon Hill — April 8, 2015

  Digital Trends

 

 

 

Ted Kritsonis/Digital Trends

Samsung’s Galaxy S6 is a beautiful phone that’s going to prove very hard to resist. If you’ve been seduced, then you’ll be delighted to learn that there’s a lot more to this phone than meets the eye. You’ll find that Samsung has worked hard to add value with a treasure trove of handy shortcuts and extra features. Some of them are familiar from previous Galaxy S phones, some are new entries from Samsung, and some come courtesy of Google’s latest Lollipop-flavored Android 5.0 release. Here are some of the best Galaxy S6 tips we’ve uncovered so far.

• How to streamline navigation, get a theme you want, use the fingerprint sensor, enable split screen, and launch the camera quickly
• How to easily take a selfie, not be disturbed, download files quickly, take a screenshot, and use Google Now
• How to use private mode, beef up security, use gestures, get the most from your display, and customize vibrations
• How to use Smart Lock, save battery life, disable/uninstall apps, unlock developer options, and get 100GB of free cloud storage

How to streamline your navigation

Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends

One of the first things you should do to start customizing your S6 for your own personal needs is to pull down that notification shade and tap on Edit. Now drag and drop all the features, functions, and shortcuts you want to have easy access to into your quick settings menu and ditch anything you don’t need. When you’re happy with the line-up tap Done.
Related: Samsung Galaxy S6 review
You should also edit the Quick settings that appear at the top of the Settings menu. Once again, there’s an Edit button at the top right and you can choose up to nine specific Settings to appear as large icons at the top of the list. Stick the stuff you most commonly go to in here and you’ll save yourself some time.

How to get the theme you want

You’ll find the usual batch of wallpapers and widgets when you tap and hold on any empty space on your home screen, along with the option to change your screen grid size. You’ll also find Themes in here that can give your phone an entirely fresh look, changing app icons, the font, the backgrounds on your home screen, and elements of many of your standard apps, like Phone and Contacts. You can preview themes before applying them.
There are only three themes on the S6 by default, but you’ll find lots more to download via the Store link at the top right of the Themes page. There is also a theme tool on the way which will enable you to create your own themes.

How to use the fingerprint sensor

The fingerprint sensor is by far the coolest, quickest, and most secure way to unlock your Galaxy S6, so dive into Settings > Lock screen and security > Screen lock type > Fingerprints and follow the onscreen instructions. You can always add more fingerprints later or remove fingerprints in the same menu.
It makes a lot of sense to use your thumb if you want to be able to unlock the phone one-handed. You also have the option to set your backup password. At the bottom you’ll find two toggles that dictate whether you can use the fingerprint sensor for Web sign-in and to Verify Samsung account. That means you won’t have to enter passwords for either, you can simply scan your fingerprint instead.

How to enable split screen

The Galaxy S6 has a stunning, 5.1-inch display and you can have more than one app on it at the same time using the split screen function. All you have to do is hold down the apps or multitasking button at the bottom left for a couple of seconds. The bottom half of the screen will display a menu of apps you can choose from and the top half will go on displaying whatever it was displaying. If you want to change the space allocated, drag the icon in the middle up or down. You can also access more options, such as the option to flip, window, or close apps, by tapping on the circle.

How to quickly launch the camera

The Galaxy S6 has a fantastic 16-megapixel main camera and you can boost your chances of catching those spontaneous moments with this handy camera shortcut. Simply double tap the Home button and the camera app will launch. It works anywhere, even when the screen is off.
It’s worth noting that this shortcut results in a small delay when you press your Home button once, as the S6 is waiting to see if you plan on tapping twice for the camera. If you find it annoying then dip into the Camera settings and toggle Quick launch off.