7 things I miss about Samsung since switching to a Pixel

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority I’ve used a lot of Nexus and Pixels in the past, but from 2019 until present, I’ve been a Samsung guy, owning the S10 Plus and every Ultra model from the S20 to the S24 series. A few months ago, I started thinking about switching to a Pixel for the first time since the Pixel 3 XL. After the Pixel 10 launched, I pulled the trigger and bought a 10 Pro. After six years in the realm of Samsung, switching from One UI to Google’s vision of Android has been a big adjustment. Some of those adjustments have been harder than others, and after a few weeks with my Pixel, these are the things I miss most from One UI. Would the features in One UI prevent you from trying something else? 132 votes Yes 52 % No 30 % I don't own a Samsung 19 % Samsung Clock I didn’t expect Samsung’s Clock app to be one of the things I missed most, but One UI 7 added features I haven’t seen in any other clock app. Alarm groups are like folders on your home screen, letting you place multiple alarms in one place. Toggling all of the alarms in a group with the press of a single button saves time and is so much easier than having to scroll through a list of alarms to find the right ones. Alarm groups prevent clutter, and that’s something I miss, especially with Google’s Material 3 Expressive redesign of its clock app. Google is apparently planning to address complaints, but for now, it feels like a mess. Good Lock Good Lock is a collection of modules that let you customise and modify different parts of how your phone looks and behaves. Theme Park enables you to customize app icons, either by creating your own designs or importing an icon pack downloaded from the Play Store. These custom icons are system-wide, so you’ll see them on the home screen, in the overview screen, and everywhere else you’d expect. Next, there’s Sound Assistant. As the name suggests, this module lets you modify what your phone does with sound. My favorite part of Sound Assistant is “control media with volume keys.” When enabled, long-pressing the volume keys with the screen off changes the track you’re listening to. I turn the touch controls for my earbuds off at night so I can lie on my side, and this made changing tracks more convenient because I didn’t have to open my eyes or wake my phone. But what I miss above all else is One Hand Operation +. Abysmal name aside, this app changed how I navigated my phone for the six years I was using One UI. The module customises what swipes from the side of the screen do. Instead of just going back like every other Android phone, this app adds triggers for swiping straight out, diagonally up, and diagonally down. In my setup, which you can see in the recording above, swiping diagonally up opens the overview screen, swiping out goes back, and swiping diagonally down goes home. Having full navigation without stretching my thumb to the bottom of the screen was more comfortable, especially on larger phones. Modes and Routines Samsung Modes and Routines is an app that has countless options for automating your phone, with dozens of triggers and actions that you can link up. Think of it as Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Siri Shortcuts. Modes and Routines can control everything in your Samsung ecosystem, including earbuds and watches. You can, for example, have your Galaxy Buds turn on noise cancellation and switch equalizer presets whenever a game and Bluetooth controller are connected. Being able to adjust all of those settings with a single tap saves a lot of squinting at my phone when I have a migraine. However, the two routines I used most are for migraines and phone appointments. The former is activated manually by a widget on my home screen and dims my display, turns on the blue light filter, and mutes all sound. Being able to adjust all of those settings with a single tap saves a lot of squinting at my phone when a migraine aura is making everything blurry. The latter routine makes sure I never miss any of the over-the-phone doctor’s appointments I have regularly. With all of the notifications I receive each day, I keep my phone on silent all the time. When I have an appointment, I set an alarm to go off about ten minutes before that call is scheduled. A specific alarm can trigger routines, so when my “appointment” alarm goes off, the routine sets my ringer and notification volume to 100%. Widget stacks I love having widgets on my home screen, and Samsung makes it easier than ever to use them in a way that’s both useful and pleasing to look at. Widget stacks let you “stack” widgets of the same size on top of each other and scroll through them. This way, you can have as many widgets as you could ever need on one screen without your setup looking like a mess. On my Galaxy S25, I have three stacks: Calendar and Tick Tick, battery and Now Brief, and Clock and Weather. I find that Google’s widgets leave a lot to be desired, but I could ignore my complaints with their design if I could stack them. Samsung borrowed widget stacks from iOS, and I wish Google would too. Now Bar The Now Bar is Samsung’s implementation of Live Updates, an Android 16 feature that shows real-time information, such as navigation, sports scores, and more, in a notification What frustrates me with Live Updates on the Pixel is that few apps support it — I can’t get Google Maps to display directions this way, even though Samsung phones on Android 15 have been able to do this with Maps and more since One UI 7 was released earlier this year. Samsung got Google’s own apps working with its implementation months before Google could do the same for Pixels. To make matters worse, media controls won’t be supported on Pixels even though they work with Samsung’s Now Bar. Media controls are what I use the Now Bar for more than anything else, and it’s disappointing that I won’t be able to do that on my Pixel. Edge Panels The Edge Panel is a love-it-or-hate-it feature, and I love it. A small handle at the side of the screen lets you pull out various panels, like a favorite apps page, quick tools like a compass or tally counter, weather, and more. The apps and tools panels are the ones I use most, and it’s one of the things that makes multitasking in One UI that much better. From anywhere on your phone, a simple swipe gives you access to all of your apps and so much more, and it’s something I’ve missed more than I expected. Some apps try to replicate this on non-Samsung phones, and while they work reasonably well, it’s nowhere near as smooth an experience as what Samsung has built into One UI. Pop-up windows I use multi-window on my Android devices all the time. The Pixel matches Samsung’s devices for split-screen multitasking, but it doesn’t come close to pop-up windows. These freeform apps behave as they would in a desktop environment, so you can minimise, resize, and drag them around your screen. I primarily use pop-up windows to jump in and out of chat apps while doing other things on my phone, like watching YouTube. Being able to read a message and reply without leaving the app I’m in is more convenient than any other method. Pop-up windows tie back into Edge Panels, too, as you can drag an app from the apps panel to the center of the screen to launch it in a window. Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority The Pixel does have options. Chat Bubbles let you put conversations in a floating bubble, but this has to be turned on and off per conversation, and when it’s switched on, it’ll automatically open a bubble each time you get a message instead of showing up as a normal notification. It also only lets you interact with the chosen conversation, so you can’t navigate to any other chats, and it only works with messaging apps. Samsung’s pop-up windows work with any app, and you can use those applications normally instead of being limited to a specific message thread. Chat Bubbles feel like a crude, half-baked solution rather than a reliable feature I would want to use all the time. In fact, Chat Bubbles are switched off by default and buried in the settings menu, so it feels like Google has given up on it. Joe Maring / Android Authority I miss a lot of the quirks and features from One UI, but that doesn’t mean I regret making the switch back to a Pixel as my primary phone. Every phone comes with its own set of pros and cons, and right now I’m willing to forego things like pop-up windows and the Now Bar for the other stuff the Pixel has to offer. Even so, I’d love for Google to add some of these things to its Android skin one day. Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority? Set us as a favorite source in Google Discover to support us and make sure you never miss our latest exclusive reports, expert analysis, and much more. You can also set us as a preferred source in Google Search — find out more here. Are there features in One UI that you’d miss if you changed smartphone brands? Would you miss them enough that you wouldn’t consider buying anything other than a Galaxy? Let us know. Follow