- 1. Change Autofill on Samsung M21
- 2. Hide Apps
- 3. Always Sleeping Apps
- 4. Night Mode or Dark Theme
- 5. Change Accent Color on One UI 3.0
- 6. Try Bold Fonts
- 7. Navigation Gestures
- 8. See more icons in the status bar
- 9. Remove Bixby Home Ads
- 10. Flash Notifications
- 11. Universal Search in Quick Settings
- 12. Customize Always On Display
- 13. Reduce Animations
- 14. Replace App Shortcuts
- 15. App Grid
- 16. Floating Keyboard
- 17. Recover Deleted Images
- 18. Manage notifications
1. Change Autofill on Samsung M21
The default Auto-fill service on Samsung’s One UI 3.0 is Samsung Pass and if you have already fed your data to Google Autofill or any other password manager, it would be wise to switch as soon as you set-up it.
To do so, just go to Settings >> General Management >>language and input >> Autofill service.
2. Hide Apps
The new Samsung One UI 3.0 has an option to hide apps from the app drawer. So, if you need to keep certain apps private, you can hide them and they won’t show up in your App drawer or on your home screen. You may still access them using app search or universal search.
To hide apps, long press on the Home screen, and tap on ‘Home Screen Settings’. Now select Hide Apps from launcher settings, and select the specific apps you wish to conceal.
3. Always Sleeping Apps
There are certain apps that you need to use every once in a while but not otherwise. Samsung’s One UI 3.0 has an option to let these apps sleeping. This is to say, these apps won’t run in the background, won’t hog your notification shade, and won’t be updated. This should help save data and conserve system performance.
To access the option, Go to Settings>> Notifications. Now, scroll down to find the ‘put unused apps to sleep’ option under Tips. On the next screen, you will find suggestions for sleeping apps and can add more to the list.
4. Night Mode or Dark Theme
The night mode on our One UI 3.0 running Samsung M21 doubles as a night theme. And, those gorgeous AMOLED blacks make it even more appealing. To access the option, just go to the Settings>> Display and turn on Night mode.
5. Change Accent Color on One UI 3.0
While we are talking about dark mode, there is a workaround to change Accent color on One UI 3.0 phones. There isn’t a direct option as there is on OnePlus phones, but you can still get the same result.
You can go to Settings>> Wallpaper and Themes, and switch to the ‘Themes’ tab. A handful of themes are listed under ‘My Themes’ and all of these offer different Accent colors. The two high-contrast themes are similar to using Night mode but with a different accent color.
6. Try Bold Fonts
Incidentally, the bold font works really well with the new One UI 3.0 design. From the same menu, you can also adjust the font size and choose from different font styles (or download new fonts).
7. Navigation Gestures
It’s been a bit late in the game, but Samsung has added the support for gesture navigation with the One UI 3.0. This should be helpful for people who are open to trying a new, but more immersive navigation system on Android, particularly those using large display tablets.
The gestures are quite basic and you can access them under Settings >>Display >>Navigation bar.
8. See more icons in the status bar
Since Samsung has now embraced the notch or the idea of cut-out display in general, there are a couple more options in the One UI 3.0 to manage the status bar space (which takes a hit with notch-display phones).
You can limit the number of app icons on the status bar to 3 and decide if you wish to see battery percentage or not. Just pull down the notification shade (twice) to access quick settings. Now tap on the triple dot menu button and select ‘Status bar’.
9. Remove Bixby Home Ads
Our One UI 3.0 running Samsung M21 also shows sponsored cards within Bixby’s home. The card is persistent and shows up time and again even after you hide it. To permanently get rid of the Bixby ad, you may go to Settings >> Google >> Ads and turn off the toggle next to the ‘opt-out of ad personalization’ option.
10. Flash Notifications
Under accessibility settings (Settings>>Accessibility>>Advanced), One UI 3.0 has the option to turn on flash notifications. You can turn on Screen flash and camera flash, which should ensure that you never miss an important notification.
11. Universal Search in Quick Settings
You can access Universal search directly from the quick settings using the magnifier option above settings tiles. From here you can look up apps, media files, contacts, messages, and more. In the next step, you can also run a Google search for the text.
12. Customize Always On Display
Always-On display has significantly improved (in terms of design) on the One UI 3.0, and it’s now more colorful. Under Settings>>lockscreen, you can customize Always-On display clock styles and font color.
13. Reduce Animations
The One UI 3.0 comes with several nifty animations. While these run perfectly fine on our Samsung M21, Samsung also adds an option to tone them down if required. To do so, go to Settings>>Advanced and turn on ‘Reduce animations’.
14. Replace App Shortcuts
You can also place two apps of your choice in App shortcuts that appear on the left and right corner of your lock screen. This way you can quickly access apps that you frequently use.
You will find the option under Settings >> Lock screen >> App shortcuts
15. App Grid
The default font size has increased a bit with One UI 3.0. So, if you are used to your app drawer page showing more apps at once, you can also adjust the grid size for the home screen and app screen from launcher settings.
Just long-press anywhere on the home screen and select Home screen settings.
16. Floating Keyboard
The new Samsung Keyboard also has a floating mode, which is once again meant to ease single-handed operation.
Just press the arrow indicator on the right corner and select floating mode. You will now be able to reposition the keyboard anywhere on the screen.
17. Recover Deleted Images
The images you delete from the gallery on One UI 3.0 phones go to recycle bin. You can access the Bin from the triple-dot menu in the top-right corner and then restore or permanently delete images within.
18. Manage notifications
If you want to decide notification priority on One UI 3.0, the option is buried a bit deeper on the app info page. Just go to the App info page of any app by long pressing on the App icon and tap on notifications.
Now you will notice different categories of notifications permitted or not permitted to the App. Tap on any and you will notice options to micromanage these alerts.
Under Notification Style, you can decide what notifications you wish to pop-up or ringtones and vibration alerts for notifications important to you.
18 Best Samsung M21 Hidden Features, Tips, and Tricks
Apart from the features that we have mentioned, there are numerous changes big and small in the UI and in Samsung’s native apps.