The One UI experience is made up of edge panels. With the introduction of the Galaxy Note in 2014, Samsung was the first company to implement the feature. Due to their usefulness, several other Android OEMs have adopted edge panels for their own devices today.
By speeding up and simplifying your phone interactions on a daily basis, they can facilitate your productivity and ease of life. We’ll show you five ways to get the most out of your Samsung phone’s edge panels in this guide. Let’s get going.
1. Add App Pairs to the Apps Panel After setting up your Samsung phone’s edge panels, the Apps panel will be the first edge panel you see. It’s a place where you can keep your most frequently used apps so you can quickly access them whenever you need to without crowding your home screen. Consequently, it contributes to the enhancement of your phone’s beauty.
However, the Apps edge panel is more than just a cosmetic enhancement. By incorporating app pairs for easier multitasking, you can use it to improve your lifestyle and productivity. To begin, an app pair must be created.
This can be done in a number of ways, but we’ll show you the simplest one:
Pull out the edge panel after opening an app of your choice.
Drag and drop the second app from the Apps panel onto either side of your screen. Avoid dropping the application in the middle of your screen. If you do this, it will open in a pop-up rather than split-screen mode.
Tap the resize handle in split-screen mode, then tap the Add to edge panel icon in the middle.
You can set your edge panel to always open a second app in split-screen view with a single tap, eliminating the need to drag it, if you find this to be more convenient. Pull out your Apps panel, tap the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines), Edit, kebab menu (the three vertical dots), and tap Tap to accomplish this.
Instead of just two apps, you can create up to three app pairs on foldable phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Foldable phones can make better use of multi-window mode due to the larger screen area.
Keep in mind that the Apps panel can only hold up to 22 apps, whether you put single apps or pairs of apps on it. Here are some app pairing ideas we think you should try to get started:
2. Add Useful Shortcuts to the Tasks Panel The Tasks panel is far more useful than you realize. It can be used to make direct calls, send messages, take screenshots, set an alarm, open a new browser tab, see your bookmarks, add a calendar event, view a gallery album, start one-handed mode, and do a lot more. All with a single tap on a single panel.
You must first enable it in order to add shortcuts to your Tasks panel. If you don’t, select Tasks in Settings > Display > Edge panels > Panels. Pull out your edge panel once it has been enabled, navigate to the Tasks panel, and tap Edit. In the app tray, you’ll find a plethora of shortcuts that you can choose from and set up to 12 of.
3. Using the Music Panel, Access Your Songs You can play downloaded songs directly from an edge panel. Similar to how you enabled the Tasks panel, enable the Music panel from the Panels menu. The Music panel is very useful because it shows relevant categories like Favorite tracks, most played, most recently played, and recently added.
You can also quickly skip through a track, go back, or play and pause tracks with it because it has the same music controls as the media player in your Quick Settings panel (with the exception of a progress bar).
With the Music panel, you can always have your favorite songs close by, ready to brighten your day. Additionally, to open the Samsung Music app and play a particular playlist, simply tap the button at the bottom.
4. Hide and Lock the Edge Panel Handle Your Samsung phone’s edge panel is one of its most useful features, but its handle can be very noticeable. Although it tells you where to swipe to access the feature, it is also always there, regardless of what you are doing on your phone.
This is unacceptable for a professional like you. Fortunately, you can make the handle transparent to prevent it from interfering with the content that is displayed on your screen. Navigate to Settings > Display > Edge panels > Handle and move the transparency slider all the way to the right in order to accomplish this.
Although doing so may make it more difficult to locate the handle, you can simply increase its size and width to increase its surface area on your screen and make it easier to reach. You can also turn on Lock handle position to prevent it from being moved accidentally. This way, you’ll only have to remember where to swipe.
5. Download Third-Party Edge Panels Samsung provides a total of nine native edge panels, including Smart select, Reminder, Clipboard, Apps, Tasks, Weather, Tools, People, and Tools. However, for additional utility, you can also download edge panels made by third parties from the Galaxy Store.
Tap the Galaxy Store button at the bottom of the Panels menu to perform this action. Install the edge panels that you find interesting or useful, either paid or free.
Although you can choose up to ten edge panels, we suggest only having five active at once. Anything more than that makes it difficult to quickly access a particular panel because you have to swipe too much to locate it. That defeats the purpose of using edge panels in its entirety.
Make Your Edge Panels Your Own Like a Pro Edge panels are just one of the many features that come with Samsung phones. The default settings are sufficient and effective for casual users. However, in order to fully utilize One UI, it is essential to customize as much as possible for professional users who want the full experience.
