The home screen on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ is where all the action begins. All the essential apps and functions are typically accessible right from the home screen, and it's where users can truly personalize the device to suit their needs. Having a neatly organized and highly efficient home screen setup can make or break the overall user experience with any smartphone or tablet. With a phone as nice as the Galaxy S8/S8 +, having a sloppy home screen layout doesn't do it any justice.
The following tutorial is going to cover everything about editing how the home screen looks and function on the S8/S8+. We'll go over how to; arrange, delete, and add icons, add widgets, use quick access functions, and edit home screen settings. For this article, we used a Samsung Galaxy S8 running Android Nougat and the TouchWiz Home launcher.
Add, Remove, and Rearrange Shortcuts, Manage Favorites, Create and Delete a Home Screen Page
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To add a new shortcut to your home screen, swipe up to access your app drawer.
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From the app drawer, tap + hold an app icon until the quick settings menu appears, then select "Add shortcut to Home".
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To remove a shortcut from the home screen, tap + hold it until the quick settings menu appears, then tap "Remove shortcut".
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To move an icon to a different location, tap + drag it to a different location
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If you're moving a shortcut to a spot that already has an icon, they'll swap positions.
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Your favorites are the icons that occupy the very first row, near the bottom of the screen
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To add a shortcut to favorites, tap + drag it down to that row.
You can have up to five shortcuts in your favorites.
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To add home screen page, tap + hold between the favorite and first row of icons.
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Once the home screen shrinks swipe to the left to get to a blank page
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Next, tap the large "+" sign to add another home screen page.
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To delete a home screen, tap + hold somewhere between the icons (or in an open space) until the screen shrinks, then tap the red trash bin icon.
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If you have multiple pages with shortcuts, you can make any of those screens your main home screen by tapping the home icon at the top of the screen.
Home Screen Settings
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Tap + hold between your favorites and the first row of shortcuts
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When the three options appear below, tap "Home screen settings".
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The first option on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS is "Home screen layout"
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Tap this, then select either "Home and Apps screen" or "Home screen only".
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Next on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS is "Home screen grid"
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Tap here, then select a grid preference.
Remember that having more icons on the screen makes them smaller.
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Continuing on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS we come to "App screen grid"
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Tap here and choose the grid layout for your app drawer.
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Next on the HOME SCREEN SETTINGS page is "Apps button"
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Tap it, then select either; "Show apps button" or "Hide apps button".
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To access your notification panel by swiping down on any screen, make sure the switch next to "Quick-open notification panel" is toggled on.
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The last option on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS is "Hide apps"
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Tap this, select any apps you wish to hide, followed by "APPLY".
Widgets, Wallpapers and Themes
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Tap + hold between your favorites and the first row of shortcuts until the home screen options appear, then tap "Widgets".
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Scroll through and choose a widget by tapping on it
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For our example, we went with the weather widget.
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Once you're on the widget's screen, tap + drag the layout to an available space on your home screen.
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Once the widget is on a home screen page; you may need to resize or reposition it
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Drag from the corners to resize it and drag it from inside the box to move it around.
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To delete a widget, tap + hold it, then tap "Remove".
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To change your device's wallpaper or theme, tap + hold between your favorites and the first row of icons until the home screen options appear
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Next, tap "Wallpapers and themes".
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Once on the Wallpapers and themes screen, you have several options
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There are both free and paid wallpapers, themes, and icons sets.
Anything wallpaper you install will always appear in the "My wallpapers" at the top.
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Setting a wallpaper is straightforward, once you find something you like, tap it, then tap "Set as wallpaper".
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You can browse through themes and wallpapers in category view by tapping the hamburger icon in the upper right corner.
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To search for themes and wallpapers with keywords, tap the search icon in the top right corner.
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To view any items on your wish list or previous purchases, tap the three-dot menu in the upper right corner, followed by "My page".
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Your page will display and themes you've paid for and also artists you're following.
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To access your themes main settings screen, tap the three-dot icon, then tap "Settings".
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On the
Settings' screen you can change things like; auto-update themes (WiFi only), display recommended content, purchase protection, and more.
When tapping and holding app shortcuts on the home screen, specific options (depending on the app) appear in a box either above or below the icon. Things like; uninstalling, creating/removing shortcuts (as mentioned earlier in this guide), disabling, putting to sleep, and viewing the app's info screen.
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To put an app to sleep, tap + hold the icon, then when the menu appears, select "Sleep".
A pop-up will appear notifying that the app will no longer use battery power while in the background and that sleeping apps may not receive updates or send notifications.
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You can also uninstall an app directly from the home screen
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Tap + hold the icon, then tap "Uninstall".
A dialogue box will pop-up confirming that you want to continue with uninstalling the app.
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To view an app's information page, tap + hold the shortcut, then select "Info"
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This will take you directly to the app's page, the same as if you were to go through settings.
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To clear out an apps notifications badge, tap + hold the icon, then tap "Clear badge"
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The number that was sitting in the upper right corner of the shortcut will disappear.
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You can also disable certain apps from the home screen
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Tap + hold the shortcut, then tap "Disable".
A pop-up will appear informing you that the app's functions will no longer work, as well as how to re-enable it.
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To group multiple apps into a folder, tap + hold on one of the shortcuts, then tap "Select multiple items"
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Once you've selected the apps you wish to have grouped, tap "Create folder" at the top of the screen.
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To give the folder a name, tap it, then enter the desired title using your keyboard
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Once you've typed the name of the folder, tap "Done" in the lower right corner of the keyboard.
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To delete a folder, tap + hold it until the quick access options appear
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Next, tap "Delete folder".
The apps inside the folder will return to your home screen, only the folder gets deleted.
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