More from My Smartphone

Beyond customizing my wallpaper for my lock screen and home screen on my smartphone, or choosing specific ringtones, I've never done much more to personalize any of my last four Android phones.

With the latest OS update on my Samsung Galaxy S24, I've decided to delve more into what my phone can do, and I'm having a bit of fun. Some of the features aren't new to the One UI 7.0 update but it wasn't until I saw significant changes to my phone that I started paying attention.

A lot of these features may be well known to some of you but please indulge me. It's all new to me.

I like to keep my home screen simple, so I only have my essential or most-used apps on display, lumping some of them in folders. Because I can easily recognize each app by their icon, I've now removed the labels, which seemed to clutter the home page unnecessarily.

For security, I've hidden all of my banking apps and my Google wallet. No search for these apps will reveal themselves. But what I've done is added them to the side tab of the screen, which is the only place that these apps can be found. And usually, you can see where the side tab is on the phone by a narrow strip that hugs to either the left side or the right side of the screen.

I've raised the opacity of that tab to 100 percent, so that it's invisible. That side tab will only appear if you know it exists and you know where to touch on the screen.

Routines have been around on Galaxy phones for a few years but I've never used them. I've used the Sleep mode and the Driving mode for a few years but I've never set routines to help me get the most out of my phone.

I've set up a routine that disengages the face-cognition or thumbprint requirement to unlock my phone while I'm at home, but that resumes those requirements as soon as I'm outside of my home Wi-Fi networks.

I've set up a routine that automatically engages the power-saving feature if the phone isn't plugged in, for charging, between midnight and 7 am. This way, if I forget to plug in my phone before going to bed, it will conserve energy so that I still have power the next morning.

Now, if I do remember to plug in my phone before I go to bed, there's a routine that turns the fast-charging capability of my phone off between midnight and 6:30 the next morning. I also set the battery protection to stop charging when it reaches 90-percent capacity.

Apparently, lithium-ion batteries don't like maintaining a 100-percent charge status, so it's not a good idea to leave them plugged in when they're fully charged. By ending the 90-percent charge limit at 6:30, I have a half an hour to fast-charge the phone to full for when my alarm wakes me up.

I still have a bad habit of staring at my screen until late at night. But I've set up a routine that puts my phone in dark mode, runs an adaptive eye-comfort shield, and dims the screen to 80 percent. That way, it's easy on my eyes, plus it reminds me that I shouldn't be on my phone.

That routine starts at a quarter to midnight and runs until 6 am.

I have a routine that only lets me stream video when I'm on Wi-Fi. And a routine that keeps Bluetooth enabled when the rest of the phone is in Airplane mode.

I've also customized my lock screen, with a font style and size that I like, located in a position that doesn't cover the focal point of my wallpaper. I have added icons that show me what the outside temperature is and my battery level, and I've changed the quick access to my phone to the quick access of attaining a QR code link.

The wallpaper, itself, is adaptive. The photo changes with the time of day, such that it gives the sky a warm glow at sunrise and sunset, it goes dark and gives the impression of moonlight on the subject, and will convey the current weather, such as when it's foggy or when it's raining, with animated fog and raindrops, respectively.

I've even customized how I take a screen capture (as is evidenced by how many screen shots I have in this post!). I used to just ask Bixby to take a screen capture (I found pressing multiple buttons at the same time awkward); now, I just swipe my hand to the right, across the screen. I find it faster.

Speaking of Bixby, I've modified it so that I don't have to say, "Hey, Bixby," before it wakes up. Now, I can make my request right away by saying something like, "Bixby, set a 30-minute timer," without waiting for the chime that indicates Bixby is listening.

I know, I know: now, Bixby is always listening. Whatever.

I've also set up the phone to allow for a split screen, so I can check an e-mail message while I'm scrolling through Bluesky at the same time.

There are probably some customizations that I've made but have forgotten about, and I'm sure I'll take advantage of more convenient, time-saving features as I get to know my phone better.

What about you? What neat features do you use on your Android? What do you think of the latest OS upgrades? Leave me a comment.

Happy Monday!