Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus Tips and Tricks

A handy feature of Android is to quickly clear your notifications.

Simply pull down your notifications bar by swiping your finger from the top of your phone downwards.

Then when you see each individual notification, swipe your finger left or right to clear each one. You can do this with your Apps too – press and hold the multitasking button. Then swipe left or right to close Apps.

If you want to access certain features of your device that are only available to developers, then you want the Developer options setting.

On most devices, this feature is hidden so you will need to pull down your notifications screen go into Settings. Then scroll down to About device or About phone.

Then select Software information and you should see Build Number.

Press on this option a total of seven times. You should get a message at the fourth press. On the seventh, you’ll get another message saying that Developer Options are unlocked.

If you find that a particular App is sending you too many notifications, there is a quick way to disable these.

When you receive the notification, pull down the notification screen. Then long press on the notification. You should see a small ‘i’. Press this and you should see the notifications specific to that App.

Simply select Block notifications to disable them for that App only.

To enable or disable the vibrate function when you receive text messages, go to the Messaging App and press the Settings icon in the top right.

Then select Notifications – Vibrate when sound plays.

To enable or disable vibration for incoming phone calls, then go to your main Settings, then Sounds and vibrations, then Vibrate when ringing.

If you want to resize your home screen widgets, then press and hold on a widget for 2 seconds. If the widget is resizable, then an outline will appear around the widget. Simply drag the sides to resize the widget.

If the outline doesn’t appear or you can’t drag the lines, then the widget is a fixed sized widget.

Android now comes with some great battery management built into the OS.

Pull down your notifications screen and select Settings – Device maintenance.

Then go to Battery and you will see some useful stats such as the time remaining.

There are also options to set up various Power Saving modes.

Select one of these to really make your phone last the distance.

Be warned that these can limit your device quite considerably as certain features will be disabled in order to conserve battery life.

Voicemail is one of this crucial phone features, which isn’t always obvious to find.

To set up your voicemail, then first open your Phone App. Then press the settings icon in the top right and select Settings.

Then scroll down to Voicemail settings. From here you will find various options including the number to dial to retrieve your mails. You might need to check with your carrier for the correct number.

Depending on your carrier you may have to enter the series of steps required to go through the voicemail menu, for example: *86,,yourpassword# (a comma inserts a pause).

The fast and easy way to change the wallpaper on the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus is to tap and hold on a blank space on your home screen and then tap “Wallpapers.”

From there, you can choose any image from your gallery or from a preset selection of live wallpapers from your device.

You may also go directly to your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus Gallery then open an image of your choice. Once you open the image, select “More” to look for the “Set as Wallpaper” option.

You can also change your wallpaper from the Settings menu on your phone. Just follow these steps:

1. Swipe up or unlock your home screen to display all apps.
2. Look for the Settings icon, tap and then look for “Display.” For some phones, you might want to look for “Home Screen” or “Wallpaper” right away.
3. Next, tap “Wallpaper” and select which folder or file you want to use.
4. Find your desired image and tap “Set Wallpaper.”

You can always use your own image as a wallpaper. However, most phones also have a preset selection of wallpapers (or live images) that can be used anytime too.

You may also choose different images each for your wallpaper and lock screen. However, you may also use just one image for both.

If you are browsing YouTube videos on your phone and they appear blurry, then this is usually because of your connection speed.

If you are using 3G / 4G and you’re in an area of low signal strength, then YouTube will sometimes automatically reduce the quality of the video. Unfortunately this can make the video very pixelated and of poor quality.

If you are using the standard Android browser, then when the video is in full screen, press the back button. Then press HQ and start playing it again.

If you are using another browser, then press the Settings icon on the bottom right of the YouTube video. Then change the quality.

This may improve the quality, but it may also lead to buffering issues.

Another solution is to use a WiFi connection, if one is available.

To adjust your screen brightness, there are two options:

1) Simply drag your finger from the top of the phone down to pull down your quick settings screen. Then at the top there will be a brightness bar. Drag this left or right or press Auto.

2) Drag your notifications screen down and select Display. Then choose the desired brightness setting.

You can also select Automatic brightness to let the phone decide for you.