Samsung Galaxy S4 Tips and Tricks

This is a list of all the Samsung Galaxy S4 cool tips, tricks and cheats I find while using my phone.  I will list them all here so they are in one place.

Secret testing and configuration menu on all Samsung phones including the S4.  Call *#0*#.  Then take a look at the options for loads of cool sensors and you can use this menu to test for dead pixel on your Samsung Galaxy S4.

On the Samsung Galaxy S4, to hide the side panel pop up menu hold the back button for a few seconds.  Then menu should disappear.  Swipe the screen from the far left side to bring the side menu back.

You can pinch your home screen after entering the phone to see all 7 of the pages.  Above each screen on this page showing all of them you will see a small down arrow.  Tap this to set your main screen.  This will then be the screen that shows first when you access your phone.  You can also use this screen to move home screens into different positions and reorder their arrangement.

Hold the home button to see your recent apps.  You can clear them using the clear button on bottom right.  Press the pie chart on the bottom left to see which apps are running, and end some of them.

Swipe down the Samsung s4 screen to quickly change the brightness settings.

To save a screenshot on the Samsung Galaxy S4, s3 or s2 hold the home and power button for 2 seconds.  Holding the home and power button on an iPhone switches it off, but on Samsung/Android this takes a screenshot.  You can also use the palm swipe method by setting it to on in options.

I always get annoyed when my hand presses buttons accidentally on my Samsung Galaxy S4.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could lock the buttons when watching a video or movie? To lock the screen and buttons when watching a movie press the power button.  Once you press the power button when watching a movie it will show a small padlock in the top right of your movie screen.  This tells you it’s locked and you can relax.

Do you see the small white circles between your top apps and the bottom line of apps?  You can put your finger on one of these white circles and slide your finger left and right to quickly move between pages.


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31 Responses to Samsung Galaxy S4 Tips and Tricks

  1. Thanks for posting the tips. Really helpful!.

    • Glad you liked the tips Cathy! I’m really enjoying my new samsung s4. My first ever Android phone, but it does take some time to get used to the difference between the s4 and the iphone.

  2. Great tips and tricks! You just saved me a headache trying to figure out how to bring back the side menu so thanks! As I’m new to android this has helped loads!.

    • Finding a way to remove (and bring back) the side menu on the Samsung Galaxy S4 Android was my biggest issue. So far I’m really liking the phone! Glad you liked the tips and tricks Bob.

  3. On the iphones if you press the home and power buttons st the same time it will also take a screenshot.

    • That,s actually the method I use now. The Samsung s4 has a lot of gimmick features, things which look cool but you never really use in the real world. Like waving your hand over the screen to see the time when the phone is off. It looks cool, but takes 5 seconds for the time to fade in! So it’s just faster to simply press the home button. I have no idea why they made that feature so slow.

  4. Thanks for the tips. What I miss the most about my iphone is the bluetooth connection. With the galaxy I have to keep manually reconnecting it to my car, with the iPhone it automatically connected. Plus the galaxy doesn’t always connect audio & media so sometimes my music works but I can’t make calls. Does anyone have any suggestions?.

  5. There are a few issues I’ve been dealing with and was wondering if you could help. On the lock screen, how do you remove the “HOME” thats located near the bottom of the screen? Also, when I have an alarm set it shows up on the lock screen too right next to the date. Kinda looks too bunched up, was hoping there was a way to remove without turning alarm off. Also how do you delete the Samsung bookmarks that come preloaded and lastly how can you uninstall preinstalled unwanted programs aka bloatware? Not just disable, but completely remove. Thanks :-).

    • The answer to most, nearly all, of your problems is to root your Samsung Galaxy S4. Doing a root is not very risky, and allows you to make deep customizations and changes to the Android operating system. Rooting might stop the warranty on the phone. I suggest reading in depth about rooting your Samsung S4 before doing it, but it’s not a difficult process, and will give you the power you need.

  6. There is an arrow pointing down on my sceeen all the time expected for when my phone is locked I have no clue how to remove it every time I click on it it has a little twitter icon and a flipbook icon and some other ones can you help me remove it?.

    • Swipe down on the arrow. It’s the notification area of Android. Android uses these icons, like a down arrow to represt downloaded files, as indicators of what it’s doing. Once you open the notification panel on the S4 by swiping down you can swipe left on the item itself to remove it.

  7. When I try to enter a recipient for a new text message it enters numbers instead of letters and does not find the contact I want. For example if I want to text Mom….It enters 666 instead and mom does not appear. Any tips would be great
    Thanks.

  8. The phone call favourites screen does not seem to order the favourite contacts in order of frequency of contact. They are all over the place. Never had the issue with the s2.

    • What ordering system are Samsung using?.

      • That’s the issue there doesn’t seem to be any logic those higher up the list maybe one’s only recently emailed not necessarily called. Is there a way to see how the ordering is being organised.

        • Most likely an algorithm to sort by multiple factors. Try the settings and see if you find anything, else will have to accept it I think.

  9. How do I delete the drop down menu .. Every time I select a box to enter something there is a long list … how do I get rid of it.

  10. On myS.

  11. Thanks for the very useful, hard to find tips. Has helped me to fine tune my S4. Great job.

  12. Jw cant recieve calls when screen is locked. Where is the option to change that. I woke up today and ober night idk what happened to change that but no calls come thru when screen locked they just go to answering machine.

  13. I am trying to figure out how to clear my “recent” texts and calls. Itr wont allow me to delete out of my phone.

  14. For some reason the mobile data button wont show up in my notification panel
    if you could help that would be great.

  15. Hallo,
    I’m a gmail user, but on the S4mini I now recieve emails 2. Are there a way to remove the standard email folder? Other than that, this phone is great. Thank you.

    • It’s because you’re signed in using your Google ID. I recommend checking the mail app to see if you can log out of just that, or remove that login totally from your phone from settings and make a new google id just for your phone.

  16. I am unable to sort my contacts by surname. The setting for List by or sort by is missing in my contacts settings. Any ideas?.

  17. Brenton Woolfe

    I can’t get to unswipe my S4 Galaxy Phone. Suddenly it has frozen, I have tried vertical swiping & Horizontal with no response.

    Any ideas ?
    Brenton.

  18. My phone galaxy s3 went to get fix as it wouldnt turn on. It has now returned and i am able to turn it on. The wifi is working but there is a permanent message on the screen. Starts with:

    H/w: rev_
    Rf cal date : none
    smd: 01n, pba:04n
    camera: n/a frontcam n/a
    tsp: oxbd
    tsk: ox6
    Band: hsdpa, ch: n/a
    uart: n/a, usb, n/a

    they are all what is written on the message! Can you help me get rid of this message?

    Thanks!.