The splash screen on Samsung Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra is part of the launcher. It’s where you unlock your phone, the place for app shortcuts or widgets, and where you go back when you’re done with something in an app.
Enable Android 11 gesture navigation: By default, the S21 offers Samsung’s three icons for navigation. To switch to Android 11 gestures, open Settings> Display> Navigation bar. Here you have the option of buttons or swipes. You can tap “more options” to adjust, but swipe gestures let you slide your phone sideways to go back, bottom-up to go home, just like other Android devices.
Customize the navigation bar:
If you hold down the navigation buttons on the screen, you can rearrange the order. Go to settings> display> navigation bar and you can change the order of the buttons.
Change your home screen:
By long-pressing the wallpaper on a home screen, you can change the wallpaper, themes, widgets, pages, or other settings. You can also add or remove entire screens in this area, so if you want a widget page you can add it here.
Get more from the home screen:
You can change the size of the screen grid on which links and widgets are located, depending on how close you want your home screen to be. Long press in the background and select “Home Screen Settings”. Select 4×5 to keep things reasonably clean, 4×6, 5×5, or 5×6 to fill more. We usually use 5×6 otherwise things will look too big but this depends on personal preference.
To access Google Discover:
One of the new features in One UI 3.1 is access to Google Discover, which you can access on the left side of the home screen. If it is not there, long press on the main screen and swipes right to open the left page. Here you will see the option to use Google Discover, Samsung Free, or completely disable this page. (Naming may differ in different regions, we’ve seen Update, Samsung News, Bixby Home, and other items in this location before.)
To resize widgets on S21, S21, Plus, and S21 Ultra:
Many widgets can be resized or resized. A long press selects them. When you lift your finger, you can drag the blue box that appears and resize your widget. You can even resize or move the Google search box.
Customize the status bar:
This is the information at the top of the screen. Go to settings> notifications> advanced settings> status bar and you have a few options. You can limit it to three notification icons or you can have them all. You can also enable or disable the battery percentage.
Make your homepage work in the landscape:
This option displays the home screen and app drawer, settings, etc. In Horizon. It’s off by default, but you can turn it on in Settings> Home screen settings> Rotate to landscape mode. Turn this on to get the horizontal rotation, so when you switch between gaming and movie watching, you don’t have to go back to portrait every time.
Create a folder:
Simply drag one app onto another one on the home screen and a folder will be created. To remove an app from a folder, open the folder and long-press an app, then you’ll get a popup menu that will allow you to remove the app. To add apps, drag them to a folder or press the “+” button in the folder to add apps.
Change the color or name of a folder:
Open a folder and enter the desired name at the top. If you don’t want a name, leave it blank. To change the folder background color, tap the dot in the right corner and select a new color, including fully customized colors.
Delete a folder:
If you no longer want a folder, hold and press Delete. The folder and app shortcuts disappear.
To view app suggestions in recent apps:
Tapping the recent apps button or slowly swiping up when using Android 10 gestures will bring up thumbnails of recent apps pages, as well as a row of suggested apps at the bottom. These are based on what the Galaxy S21 thinks it wants to be based on recently used apps. If you don’t want to, open the menu at the top right of the search bar and disable the “recommended apps”.