GoKawiilJoe Maring / Android Authority
There’s a lot to do whenever you get a new Android phone. There are apps to download, accounts to sign into, photos to transfer, and so on. No matter how many times I’ve done it, it’s always a chore.
This is especially true with Samsung phones. Samsung’s One UI software is chock-full of features and settings, and while some are great, others annoy me to no end. Between Samsung Keyboard, screenshot gestures, and more, there are a lot of Samsung features I’ll never understand.
If you’ve got a new Samsung phone yourself, whether it’s a Galaxy S26 or another model, here are the first six features I always disable as soon as I get a new Samsung Android phone.
What do you think is the worst Samsung software feature? 95 votes Samsung Keyboard 33 % Split notification panel 27 % Edge Panels 12 % Samsung Wallet shortcuts 12 % Lock screen notification icons 6 % Screenshot swipe gesture 11 %
Get rid of Samsung Keyboard
The very first thing I recommend doing is getting rid of Samsung Keyboard. This is the default keyboard installed on every new Samsung device, and as I’ve written about before, Samsung Keyboard is a dumpster fire. It’s difficult to type on, has horrendous auto-correct, bad voice typing — the list goes on.
Rather than suffer through endless typos that’ll have your friends debating removing you from all your group chats, you should disable Samsung Keyboard and replace it with Gboard ASAP. To do this: Download Gboard from the Play Store. Open the app. Tap Enable in settings. Tap the toggle next to Gboard. Tap OK. Tap Default keyboard. Tap Gboard. You don’t have to use Gboard if there’s another keyboard you’d rather use. The important thing is that you fire off Samsung Keyboard into the sunset and use literally anything else instead.
Turn off split notifications and Quick Settings
Equally annoying is how modern Samsung phones split the notification panel and Quick Settings between two separate pages — forcing you to swipe from the upper-left corner for the former and the upper-right for the latter. Samsung isn’t the only Android brand that does this, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
... continue reading