Hot Samsung Posts

How To: Turn Your Samsung Galaxy Smartphone or Tablet into a Second Display for Your Computer

An iPad can serve as a second screen for a Mac via Sidecar, available since iPadOS 13, but Apple isn't the only manufacturer to support such a feature. Samsung has had a similar tool since One UI 3.1 that lets you turn certain Samsung Galaxy tablets into second displays for your PC — and there's a hidden feature that expands it to more tablets and even Samsung Galaxy smartphones.

How To: Secretly Call & Message Contacts Using an Innocent-Looking Android Calculator

Whether you're a secret spy or just a regular person with a few secrets, you may want to keep certain information on your smartphone private, and it's totally possible on Android to do so.

How To: Disable App Icon Badges and Unread Notification Counts on Your Samsung Galaxy Smartphone

If you scan the notification panel on your Samsung Galaxy smartphone daily, all those red circles with numbers that litter the apps on your home screen and app drawer can feel like persistent nagging and unnecessary clutter rather than friendly reminders to check your app alerts — but you can do something about it.

How To: Set Rotating Lock Screen Wallpapers on Samsung Galaxy Devices

Say what you want about Samsung's TouchWiz UI being cluttered or overbearing, but one thing you can never complain about is a lack of features. In fact, it's been almost 8 months since I first took my Galaxy S6 Edge out of its box, but I'm still discovering features to this day.

How To: Bypass the SD Card Restrictions in Android 4.4 KitKat on Your Galaxy S4

One draw that Samsung's Galaxy S line has had over the Google Nexus 4 and 5 and the HTC One (though the M8 appears to be following suit) is expandable storage. Pop a microSD card into the slot and you have extra storage for music, photos, and even apps themselves in some cases.

How To: Remove the Black Bar Under Your Galaxy's Keyboard

Back when Android used navigation buttons, there was a large black bar at the bottom of every screen to house the back, home, and recent apps buttons. But after switching to full-screen navigation gestures in 2019, there was no longer a need for it — however, a vestigial black bar still shows up when you're using your keyboard.

How To: Install the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) Utility on a Windows PC

While still extremely awesome, the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch is limited as to what you can download on to it, especially apps. It also doesn't have its own internet access (only Bluetooth), so apps like Instagram, Facebook, and Vine have yet to make their way to the Gear Store.

How To: Enable One-Tap App Installation for APKs on Android

I'm always looking for the best apps and services for my Android, and that means sticking strictly to the Google Play Store is a no-go. If you're like me and tend to install a lot of APKs (application files), you're probably tired of seeing the "Install" confirmation that always pops up.

How To: Test Your Samsung Phone by Using Secret Code *#0*#

Besides obvious features like a touchscreen and biometric sensors, the modern smartphone comes with an array of state-of-the-art hardware in the form of various sensors that help your device sense the environment around it. And if you have a Samsung handset, chances are, you have a handy feature built in that enables you to check if these sensors are functioning 100 percent.

How To: Clone Any Android App on Your Samsung Galaxy Phone Without Using Any Third-Party Tools

Samsung has a cool security feature built into One UI that has an interesting side effect, one that lets you have two separate copies of any Android app on your Galaxy phone. And that's not the only integrated Samsung tool for cloning apps.

How To: Fix Slow Auto Brightness Adjustments on Any Samsung Galaxy Device

Picture this scenario—you're using your phone in a dimly-lit room, then you move to an area with a lot more ambient light, and Auto Brightness kicks in within a few seconds to ramp up the backlight. That's the way it should be, right? But then you move back to the darker area, and your phone takes 30 seconds before it decides to dim back out. Pretty annoying, isn't it?

How To: Activate Your Samsung Galaxy's Vault to Keep Your Apps, Files, and History Safe from Prying Eyes and Hackers

One UI has an exciting privacy feature that lets you lock apps, photos, videos, and files on your Galaxy device behind Samsung's defense-grade Knox security platform. Only you can unlock it using a pattern, PIN, or passcode, or with biometrics like fingerprint and iris locks. It's like having a safe built right into your smartphone, and it couldn't be easier to set up.

How To: Carrier Unlock Your Samsung Galaxy S4 So You Can Use Another SIM Card

Unlocking your Samsung Galaxy S4 so you can use a different SIM card isn't the easiest thing in the world. In the states, unlocking cell phones was actually illegal, despite the White House's disapproval, though, a recent bill has making its way to the House floor and has made it legal again.

How To: Adjust Your Samsung Galaxy Note's S-Pen Sensitivity for Better Touch Response

Touchscreens are all the rage these days, and it seems that the stylus has become a relic of the past thanks to newer and better fingertip responsive smartphone displays. But when it comes to phablets like Samsung's Galaxy Note line, the added S-Pen is definitely helpful for more accurate and precise actions (and a less greasy screen). Of course, there are disadvantages of using an S-Pen too, one being hardware issues. Unlike your finger, the S-Pen can malfunction and become a huge problem, n...

How To: Tell if Your Samsung Battery Is Bad in 2 Seconds Flat

When it comes to squeezing as much battery life as possible out of our smartphones, most people aim for software solutions, or ones that can otherwise be easily managed right from the touchscreen.

How To: Automatically Silence Your Phone When You're Wearing Your Galaxy Watch

Smartwatches are great for notifications. No need to dig your phone out of your pocket or purse when someone texts you — just glance at your wrist! It's great for driving, walking, and any other activities where you need to stay connected to your surroundings. Except it can still be a little distracting, depending on your settings.

How To: Root ANY Samsung Galaxy S5 Variant (Even AT&T & Verizon) in 20 Seconds Flat

With a root bounty of over $18,000 up for the taking, developers were highly motivated to get the AT&T and Verizon Wireless variants of the Samsung Galaxy S5 rooted. Legendary hacker George Hotz, aka Geohot, has won the race and can now step up to claim his prize.

How To: See What Your Android Emojis Look Like on iPhones Before Sending Them

When you send an emoji from your Android device to someone that uses an iPhone, they don't see the same smiley that you do. And while there is a cross-platform standard for emojis, these don't work the same way as unicode-based smilies or dongers, so not every operating system displays these little guys the same way.

How To: This Innocent Calculator Is Really a Secret App Safe for Android

Trust can be a touchy subject in general, and is often required when sharing personal information—especially so when handing our phones over to others. You may not have a ton of secret or nefarious information on your device, but that doesn't mean you want your mom or snoopy coworker having easy access to your messages or Facebook app.

How To: Root Almost Any Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge Without Tripping KNOX

Both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have had root methods available to them before the phones were even released, but the problem with these existing root methods is that they would trip the KNOX counter on your device.

How To: Install a Custom Recovery on Your Bootloader-Locked Galaxy S5 (AT&T or Verizon)

As the largest wireless service providers in the United States, AT&T and Verizon Wireless carry some serious clout. Sadly, they use some of this power to heavily modify the Android phones that they offer.

How To: Automatically Change Keyboards for Specific Apps on Android

There's no such thing as a perfect Android keyboard. Some, like Swype, have gesture typing down to a science, but lack in predictive technology. SwiftKey, on the other hand, boasts awesome next-word prediction, but less than stellar gesture typing. Many others are optimized for multiple languages, space saving, or emojis, but none are without their flaws.

How To: Add Any Apps to Ultra Power-Saving Mode on the Galaxy S5

The Galaxy S5 comes with an awesome feature for those times when you're running low on battery life with no charger in sight. Ultra Power-Saving Mode allows you to cut back on non-vital services and convert your phone's display into a juice-saving grayscale mode to greatly extend that last bit of charge.

How To: Remotely View & Send Text Messages from Your Android Phone Using Any Web Browser

A huge chunk of my life revolves around my computer, and whenever I'm on my laptop and get a text message notification on my phone, I find it extremely distracting to stop whatever I'm doing to hunt it down. That's why I'm a big fan of text messaging via my computer.

How To: Network Unlock Your Samsung Galaxy S3 to Use with Another GSM Carrier

Why unlock your Samsung Galaxy S3 to use with a different SIM card? One possible reason is that you love your phone, but not your cellular provider because of the poor service or an unreliable connection. If you purchased a Samsung GS3 with AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. on a contract, it might be locked for a specific amount of time called the contract period.

Forget Boring Ringtones: How to Make Your Phone Announce Your Caller's Name Instead

Wouldn't it be cool to know exactly who is calling or messaging you without ever looking at your phone? It'd be a great way to keep you from reaching into your pocket or purse every time you get a message, and an efficient method to ignore people you'd rather not deal with.

How To: Install the Xposed Framework on Your Samsung Galaxy S4 for Quick & Easy softModding

Xposed, by XDA developer rovo89, is a framework for your Samsung Galaxy S4 (or other Android device) that lets you add tweaks and customizations to your ROM (either stock or custom) without any real hassle.

How To: Galaxy S5 Battery Dies Too Fast? Here's Why & How to Fix It

Samsung makes some wonderful phones, but one thing I've noticed is that battery life can start to degrade over time, causing the phone to die a lot faster than it used to. If you've been experiencing this issue, and have asked yourself, "Why does my Galaxy S5 die so fast?" there are a few likely causes—and we've got you covered with troubleshooting tips and simple fixes below.

How To: Hide Your Call & Message History for Specific Phone Numbers Using Reflection for Android

Only scumbags hide their call and message history, right? Wrong. While it may seem like a tactic for the unfaithful, it's still a good thing to do for certain contacts on your phone that you don't want to block outright.

How To: Root Your Samsung Galaxy S4 (Or Almost Any Other Android Phone) In One Easy Click

For new Android users, rooting an Android phone can often be an intimidating process, especially since there are so many different ways to gain root access, depending on your model and firmware version.

How To: PIN-Protect Mobile Data & Wi-Fi to Prevent Procrastination & Unwanted Charges

Normally, "restricted access" is something you despise. No one likes to be told they can't do something, especially when it comes to the Internet. Unfortunately, having web access at all times can not only eat away at your wallet, but make your day less productive overall, so some sort of moderation is needed.

How To: Change Font Size & Text Colors in Snapchat on Your Galaxy Note 2

In an attempt to keep things simple, Snapchat has a limited amount of editing features, made up of "smart" photo filters, drawing pens, and special text captions. If you want more editing capabilities, you'll be pleased to know there's a way, no thanks to Snapchat, but you will need to be rooted.

How To: Trick Apps That Won't Run if Your Phone Is Rooted into Thinking Its Not on the Galaxy Note 3

As a preventative measure against exploitation, certain Android applications won't work if your device is rooted. Opening one of these apps that detects root will typically end up with a warning and an inability to access its features, like in the picture below. AS IF!

How To: Use the Earpiece & Speaker Together for Surround Sound on Your Galaxy Note 3

Located at the bottom of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 lies the speaker from which music, notifications, and most other audio comes from, which provides warm and clear sound when needed.

How To: Enable LED Flash Alerts for Calls & Notifications on Galaxy Devices

I'm the type of person that rarely has an audible ringer enabled on my phone. Haptic feedback (vibration) is enough for me... most of the time. When my phone isn't in my pocket, I become the type of person who frequently misses calls and texts—and no one likes that person.

How To: Eliminate Screen Flicker & Lower Minimum Brightness on Android

If you pay close attention, you might notice that the screen on your Android begins to flicker or pulsate when you lower the brightness past a certain point. This is a result of the AMOLED technology Samsung, among other manufacturers, use in their displays, and the way that these types of screens operate.

How To: Keep Your Screen Awake for Specific Apps on Your Galaxy Note 3

Screen timeouts serve mostly as security measures and energy savers, but they can also interrupt you when you're reading a book or editing a document. There is no built-in way to manage screen timeouts on a per-app basis, but if you've got root access, you can do just that using Never Sleep from Android dev Hamzah Malik.

How To: Rename Almost Any App on Your Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Changing an app's name on your home screen is not something you can do on stock Android or TouchWiz, but it should be. If you think of it merely from a customization angle, sure, it's not a big deal, but having the ability to alter an app shortcut's name can do wonders for cleanliness and being able to distinguish from similar icons.

How To: Install a Custom Recovery & New ROM on Your Bootloader-Locked Samsung Galaxy S4

Third-party ROMs like CyanogenMod are the ultimate form of customization for softModders. Hard-working developers offer us alternate Android experiences to replace our often bloatware-riddled stock ROMs.

How To: Install & Play Candy Crush Saga (& Other Games) on Your Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch

With the Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch only several weeks old, the extent as to what you can do with it is limited since there are only about 70 apps in the Gear Store right now, and a lot of those need the full app installed on your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in order to function properly.