Manage the Home Screen on Samsung Galaxy S8
Edited by Jay
5 Parts:
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.
Contents
Add, Remove, and Rearrange Shortcuts, Manage Favorites, Create and Delete a Home Screen Page
- 1To add a new shortcut to your home screen, swipe up to access your app drawer.
Advertisement - 2From the app drawer, tap + hold an app icon until the quick settings menu appears, then select "Add shortcut to Home".
Advertisement - 3To remove a shortcut from the home screen, tap + hold it until the quick settings menu appears, then tap "Remove shortcut".
- 4If you're moving a shortcut to a spot that already has an icon, they'll swap positions.To move an icon to a different location, tap + drag it to a different location.
- 5To add a shortcut to favorites, tap + drag it down to that row.Your favorites are the icons that occupy the very first row, near the bottom of the screen.You can have up to five shortcuts in your favorites.
- 6To add home screen page, tap + hold between the favorite and first row of icons.
- 7Next, tap the large "+" sign to add another home screen page.Once the home screen shrinks swipe to the left to get to a blank page.
- 8To 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.
- 9If 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
- 1When the three options appear below, tap "Home screen settings".Tap + hold between your favorites and the first row of shortcuts.
Advertisement - 2Tap this, then select either "Home and Apps screen" or "Home screen only".The first option on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS is "Home screen layout".
- 3Tap here, then select a grid preference.Next on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS is "Home screen grid".Remember that having more icons on the screen makes them smaller.
- 4Tap here and choose the grid layout for your app drawer.Continuing on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS we come to "App screen grid".
- 5Tap it, then select either; "Show apps button" or "Hide apps button".Next on the HOME SCREEN SETTINGS page is "Apps button".
- 6To access your notification panel by swiping down on any screen, make sure the switch next to "Quick-open notification panel" is toggled on.
- 7Tap this, select any apps you wish to hide, followed by "APPLY".The last option on HOME SCREEN SETTINGS is "Hide apps".
Widgets, Wallpapers and Themes
- 1Tap + 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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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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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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Once on the Wallpapers and themes screen, you have several options
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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.
Icon Quick Access Settings and Creating Folders
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.
- 1To 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.
- 2Tap + hold the icon, then tap "Uninstall".You can also uninstall an app directly from the home screen.A dialogue box will pop-up confirming that you want to continue with uninstalling the app.
- 3This will take you directly to the app's page, the same as if you were to go through settings.To view an app's information page, tap + hold the shortcut, then select "Info".
- 4The number that was sitting in the upper right corner of the shortcut will disappear.To clear out an apps notifications badge, tap + hold the icon, then tap "Clear badge".
- 5Tap + hold the shortcut, then tap "Disable".You can also disable certain apps from the home screen.A pop-up will appear informing you that the app's functions will no longer work, as well as how to re-enable it.
- 6Once you've selected the apps you wish to have grouped, tap "Create folder" at the top of the screen.To group multiple apps into a folder, tap + hold on one of the shortcuts, then tap "Select multiple items".
- 7Once you've typed the name of the folder, tap "Done" in the lower right corner of the keyboard.To give the folder a name, tap it, then enter the desired title using your keyboard.
- 8Next, tap "Delete folder".To delete a folder, tap + hold it until the quick access options appear.The apps inside the folder will return to your home screen, only the folder gets deleted.
If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.
