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We already showed you some essential tips and tricks for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge last week, but during our endeavors with the two devices, we've stumbled across great many hidden features that not just everyone might know.
Some of these are neatly hidden away in complex menu system of TouchWiz. The last one is a treasure trove of features, indeed, and it can always surprise you with a neat trick up its sleeve. What's more, many of the tips right below will certainly amp up your power-user game!
So, what does TouchWiz can do, but doesn't want you to know? Well, we put on our geeky thinking caps and delved deep into the depths of TouchWiz, and here's what we found.
Hidden Samsung Galaxy S7 tips and tricks
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Have you ever picked up your Galaxy flagship and felt a subtle vibration? No, your mind is not playing tricks on you, it's just Samsung's Smart Alert feature doing its job. It gently vibrates if you have a pending notification and pick your phone from a flat surface. Although convenient, this feature might be causing a slight battery drain, as it's actively polling its sensors to detect whether the phone has been picked up or not. You can enable or disable Smart Alert by heading to Settings > Advanced Features > Smart Alert.
Smart Alert is nice, but might be secretly draining your battery
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This hidden feature that was uncovered as someone was tinkering with Nova Launcher on their Galaxy S7. It seems that the third-party launcher allows users to mettle with the DPI scaling of the interface. Follow this guide on how to do this.
Condensed display mode
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Your Galaxy S7 and S7 edge might automatically restart from time to time in order to "optimise" itself, as Samsung puts it. If you enable it, your phone will restart when the screen is off, you're not actively using the device, your battery is over 30%, and your SIM card lock is disabled. This feature can be enabled by going to Backup & reset > Auto restart.
Auto restart
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Black images tend to be more battery friendly for AMOLED devices than almost anything else, as they and generally use way less battery by not lighting up select pixels. That's why downloading a completely black theme might be quite beneficial to your overall battery life. Just head to the Samsung store and download one that will change all of your backgrounds to black ones. [MINU] Black Edition is free and tickled our fancy.
Completely black themes help you save some power
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Pin Windows debuted with Android Marshmallow and allows users to pin a single app window to the screen, which can't be closed by tinkering with its interface buttons or the back button. The nifty feature that debuted with Marshmallow is hidden deep in the TouchWiz menu system. Go to Settings > Lock screen and security > Other security settings, then scroll down until you see the "Pin windows" option. Once you enable it, you can have pin any app from the Recent apps menu. Quite useful if you have to give your phone to another person and you don't want them to go through all of your pictures and stuff!
Pin Windows is well hidden, but it's there
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If you wish your device to remind you for each and every notification you have, TouchWiz allows you to do so! Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Notification reminder, and tweak the feature as per your liking. Your device can vibrate each X minutes if you have a pending notification, so you might never miss an important one.
Notification reminder
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Did you know that your Galaxy S7 or S7 edge can detect doorbell sounds and baby cries? Well, they totally can! Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing > Sound detectors, and you can enable the two curious features.
Doorbell and baby detector
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Sadly, Samsung has removed the TouchWiz feature that allows users to configure the backlight behavoiur of the capacitive buttons at the front. Fortunately, this doesn't mean that users can't tinker with this. Thanks to an app, called Galaxy Button Lights, users can define the timeout for the buttons, as well as whether these should light up at all.
Manage capacitive buttons backlight behaviour
Hidden Samsung Galaxy S7 tips and tricks
Have you ever picked up your Galaxy flagship and felt a subtle vibration? No, your mind is not playing tricks on you, it's just Samsung's Smart Alert feature doing its job. It gently vibrates if you have a pending notification and pick your phone from a flat surface. Although convenient, this feature might be causing a slight battery drain, as it's actively polling its sensors to detect whether the phone has been picked up or not. You can enable or disable Smart Alert by heading to Settings > Advanced Features > Smart Alert.
Hidden Samsung Galaxy S7 tips and tricks
1. Smart Alert is nice, but might be secretly draining your battery
Have you ever picked up your Galaxy flagship and felt a subtle vibration? No, your mind is not playing tricks on you, it's just Samsung's Smart Alert feature doing its job. It gently vibrates if you have a pending notification and pick your phone from a flat surface. Although convenient, this feature might be causing a slight battery drain, as it's actively polling its sensors to detect whether the phone has been picked up or not. You can enable or disable Smart Alert by heading to Settings > Advanced Features > Smart Alert.
2. Condensed display mode
This hidden feature that was uncovered as someone was tinkering with Nova Launcher on their Galaxy S7. It seems that the third-party launcher allows users to mettle with the DPI scaling of the interface. Follow this guide on how to do this.
3. Auto restart
Your Galaxy S7 and S7 edge might automatically restart from time to time in order to "optimise" itself, as Samsung puts it. If you enable it, your phone will restart when the screen is off, you're not actively using the device, your battery is over 30%, and your SIM card lock is disabled. This feature can be enabled by going to Backup & reset > Auto restart.
4. Completely black themes help you save some power
Black images tend to be more battery friendly for AMOLED devices than almost anything else, as they and generally use way less battery by not lighting up select pixels. That's why downloading a completely black theme might be quite beneficial to your overall battery life. Just head to the Samsung store and download one that will change all of your backgrounds to black ones. [MINU] Black Edition is free and tickled our fancy.
5. Pin Windows is well hidden, but it's there
Pin Windows debuted with Android Marshmallow and allows users to pin a single app window to the screen, which can't be closed by tinkering with its interface buttons or the back button. The nifty feature that debuted with Marshmallow is hidden deep in the TouchWiz menu system. Go to Settings > Lock screen and security > Other security settings, then scroll down until you see the "Pin windows" option. Once you enable it, you can have pin any app from the Recent apps menu. Quite useful if you have to give your phone to another person and you don't want them to go through all of your pictures and stuff!
6. Notification reminder
If you wish your device to remind you for each and every notification you have, TouchWiz allows you to do so! Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Notification reminder, and tweak the feature as per your liking. Your device can vibrate each X minutes if you have a pending notification, so you might never miss an important one.
7. Doorbell and baby detector
Did you know that your Galaxy S7 or S7 edge can detect doorbell sounds and baby cries? Well, they totally can! Just go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing > Sound detectors, and you can enable the two curious features.
8. Manage capacitive buttons backlight behaviour
Sadly, Samsung has removed the TouchWiz feature that allows users to configure the backlight behavoiur of the capacitive buttons at the front. Fortunately, this doesn't mean that users can't tinker with this. Thanks to an app, called Galaxy Button Lights, users can define the timeout for the buttons, as well as whether these should light up at all.
