7 issues I miss about Samsung since switching to a Pixel

I’ve used numerous Nexus and Pixels previously, however from 2019 till current, I’ve been a Samsung man, proudly owning the S10 Plus and each Extremely mannequin from the S20 to the S24 sequence. A number of months in the past, I began excited about switching to a Pixel for the primary time for the reason that Pixel 3 XL. After the Pixel 10 launched, I pulled the set off and acquired a 10 Professional. After six years within the realm of Samsung, switching from One UI to Google’s imaginative and prescient of Android has been a giant adjustment. A few of these changes have been tougher than others, and after a number of weeks with my Pixel, these are the issues I miss most from One UI.

I didn’t count on Samsung’s Clock app to be one of many issues I missed most, however One UI 7 added options I haven’t seen in every other clock app. Alarm teams are like folders on your house display screen, letting you place a number of alarms in a single place. Toggling the entire alarms in a gaggle with the press of a single button saves time and is a lot simpler than having to scroll via a listing of alarms to seek out the precise ones.

Alarm teams forestall muddle, and that’s one thing I miss, particularly with Google’s Materials 3 Expressive redesign of its clock app. Google is outwardly planning to handle complaints, however for now, it seems like a large number.

Good Lock is a set of modules that allow you to customise and modify totally different components of how your cellphone appears to be like and behaves. Theme Park lets you customise app icons, both by creating your individual designs or importing an icon pack downloaded from the Play Retailer. These customized icons are system-wide, so that you’ll see them on the house display screen, within the overview display screen, and all over the place else you’d count on. Subsequent, there’s Sound Assistant. Because the identify suggests, this module enables you to modify what your cellphone does with sound. My favourite a part of Sound Assistant is “management media with quantity keys.” When enabled, long-pressing the amount keys with the display screen off modifications the observe you’re listening to. I flip the contact controls for my earbuds off at night time so I can lie on my facet, and this made altering tracks extra handy as a result of I didn’t need to open my eyes or wake my cellphone.

However what I miss above all else is One Hand Operation +. Abysmal identify apart, this app modified how I navigated my cellphone for the six years I used to be utilizing One UI. The module customises what swipes from the facet of the display screen do. As an alternative of simply going again like each different Android cellphone, this app provides triggers for swiping straight out, diagonally up, and diagonally down. In my setup, which you’ll see within the recording above, swiping diagonally up opens the overview display screen, swiping out goes again, and swiping diagonally down goes house. Having full navigation with out stretching my thumb to the underside of the display screen was extra snug, particularly on bigger telephones.

Samsung Modes and Routines is an app that has numerous choices for automating your cellphone, with dozens of triggers and actions that you may hyperlink up. Consider it as Samsung’s reply to Apple’s Siri Shortcuts. Modes and Routines can management all the pieces in your Samsung ecosystem, together with earbuds and watches. You’ll be able to, for instance, have your Galaxy Buds activate noise cancellation and swap equalizer presets each time a sport and Bluetooth controller are linked.

Nonetheless, the 2 routines I used most are for migraines and cellphone appointments. The previous is activated manually by a widget on my house display screen and dims my show, activates the blue gentle filter, and mutes all sound. Having the ability to alter all of these settings with a single faucet saves numerous squinting at my cellphone when a migraine aura is making all the pieces blurry.

The latter routine makes positive I by no means miss any of the over-the-phone physician’s appointments I’ve often. With the entire notifications I obtain every day, I preserve my cellphone on silent on a regular basis. When I’ve an appointment, I set an alarm to go off about ten minutes earlier than that decision is scheduled. A particular alarm can set off routines, so when my “appointment” alarm goes off, the routine units my ringer and notification quantity to 100%.

I really like having widgets on my house display screen, and Samsung makes it simpler than ever to make use of them in a manner that’s each helpful and pleasing to take a look at. Widget stacks allow you to “stack” widgets of the identical dimension on prime of one another and scroll via them. This fashion, you may have as many widgets as you possibly can ever want on one display screen with out your setup trying like a large number. On my Galaxy S25, I’ve three stacks: Calendar and Tick Tick, battery and Now Transient, and Clock and Climate.

The Now Bar is Samsung’s implementation of Dwell Updates, an Android 16 function that reveals real-time info, equivalent to navigation, sports activities scores, and extra, in a notification What frustrates me with Dwell Updates on the Pixel is that few apps assist it — I can’t get Google Maps to show instructions this manner, though Samsung telephones on Android 15 have been in a position to do that with Maps and extra since One UI 7 was launched earlier this 12 months.

Samsung bought Google’s personal apps working with its implementation months earlier than Google may do the identical for Pixels. To make issues worse, media controls gained’t be supported on Pixels though they work with Samsung’s Now Bar. Media controls are what I exploit the Now Bar for greater than anything, and it’s disappointing that I gained’t be capable of do this on my Pixel.

The Edge Panel is a love-it-or-hate-it function, and I adore it. A small deal with along side the display screen enables you to pull out numerous panels, like a favourite apps web page, fast instruments like a compass or tally counter, climate, and extra. The apps and instruments panels are those I exploit most, and it’s one of many issues that makes multitasking in One UI that a lot better.

From wherever in your cellphone, a easy swipe offers you entry to your whole apps and a lot extra, and it’s one thing I’ve missed greater than I anticipated. Some apps attempt to replicate this on non-Samsung telephones, and whereas they work moderately properly, it’s nowhere close to as clean an expertise as what Samsung has constructed into One UI.

I exploit multi-window on my Android gadgets on a regular basis. The Pixel matches Samsung’s gadgets for split-screen multitasking, but it surely doesn’t come near pop-up home windows. These freeform apps behave as they’d in a desktop surroundings, so you may minimise, resize, and drag them round your display screen. I primarily use pop-up home windows to leap out and in of chat apps whereas doing different issues on my cellphone, like watching YouTube. Having the ability to learn a message and reply with out leaving the app I’m in is extra handy than every other methodology. Pop-up home windows tie again into Edge Panels, too, as you may drag an app from the apps panel to the middle of the display screen to launch it in a window.

The Pixel does have choices. Chat Bubbles allow you to put conversations in a floating bubble, however this needs to be turned on and off per dialog, and when it’s switched on, it’ll routinely open a bubble every time you get a message as a substitute of displaying up as a traditional notification. It additionally solely enables you to work together with the chosen dialog, so you may’t navigate to every other chats, and it solely works with messaging apps. Samsung’s pop-up home windows work with any app, and you need to use these functions usually as a substitute of being restricted to a particular message thread.

Chat Bubbles really feel like a crude, half-baked resolution relatively than a dependable function I might need to use on a regular basis. The truth is, Chat Bubbles are switched off by default and buried within the settings menu, so it seems like Google has given up on it.

I miss numerous the quirks and options from One UI, however that doesn’t imply I remorse making the swap again to a Pixel as my main cellphone. Each cellphone comes with its personal set of professionals and cons, and proper now I’m prepared to forego issues like pop-up home windows and the Now Bar for the opposite stuff the Pixel has to supply. Even so, I’d love for Google so as to add a few of these issues to its Android pores and skin in the future.

Are there options in One UI that you just’d miss when you modified smartphone manufacturers? Would you miss them sufficient that you just wouldn’t contemplate shopping for something apart from a Galaxy? Tell us.