Today I want to show you how the Quick Settings panel works on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, and how to customize it to fit your own usage.
Samsung has two things in the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge that they call Quick Settings. Today though, I want to focus on the traditional Quick Settings panel that appear when you pull down your notifications from the top of the screen. Samsung does something unique with their Quick Settings panel that isn’t like Google’s AOSP version of Quick Settings.
Neither one is the right way and neither one is the wrong way. Both methods bring their own style to the table and the one you like the most simply boils down to personal preference.
Personally, I like how Google implements their Quick Settings for Nexus devices but again, that doesn’t mean Samsung is in the wrong. Android is what it is today because of how customizable it is (from both the user’s perspective and the OEM’s perspective). It’s interesting though that Google has implemented some of Samsung’s Quick Settings panel features into Android N. They could decide to revert their changes before pushing the final build, but both give you access to a certain number of Quick Settings actions by swiping down from the top of the screen once.
So let me focus on the Galaxy S7 Quick Settings panel today so I cna show you how it works and how you can change things to match your personal preference.
Galaxy S7 Quick Settings Panel
- Swipe Down from the Top of the Screen Two Times
- Tap the ‘Edit’ Button at the Top Right
- Tap and Hold on an Icon You Want to Move
- Then Drag and Drop it to Another Location
- Continue Doing This Until it’s How You Like it
- Then Tap on the ‘Done’ Button at the Top Right
Explanation
To access the Galaxy S7 Quick Settings panel, you can do one of two things. You can simply swipe down from the top of the screen to see some of your Quick Settings icons and them from here you can swipe that row to the left to access the second set of icons. There are more Quick Settings icons though and to access those, you’ll need to swipe down from the top of the screen a second time. However, another way to access all of your Galaxy S7 Quick Settings icons is to swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers at the same time.
This is a little Android shortcut and it can come in handy if you get used to using it. Some people will never need to do that though because they just don’t need access to that many Quick Settings icons. I’m glad the feature is there though because it’s a nice touch that Google has added to the core Android OS. You’ll need to reveal all of your Quick Settings icons in the panel if you want to edit them though. Once you expand the entire Galaxy S7 Quick Settings panel, you’ll then see an Edit button at the top right of the screen.
Tap on that button and then you’ll go into Edit mode for the Galaxy S7 Quick Settings panel. From here, you’ll want to tap and hold your finger or thumb on any Quick Settings icon that you want to move. You can’t manually add or remove Quick Settings icons on the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, so the next best thing is to just move the ones you don’t use to the bottom of the list. You can then move the most used ones at the top of the list and put them in a specific order that you would like to see them.
For Example, I like the Flashlight Quick Settings icon to be on the right side so that I can quickly access it easier with my thumb. It doesn’t matter which order you put them in, just make sure you’re happy with it and then tap on the Done button at the top right when you’re finished. You can come back to this screen the same way I just showed you any time you want to change these around again. Nothing is set in stone and you always have the option to move something around if you decide another place is better.
Everyone uses their smartphones differently and you should experiment with the placement of the Galaxy S7 Quick Settings icons to find out what order is best for your personal usage. Just know that you can’t mess anything up here. All of the icons will be here no matter what you do (remember, you can’t delete them). So feel free to try different placements out and then settle on the one you like the most.
