8 Amazing Gestures on Samsung Phones You Must Know

Over the past two decades, smartphones have witnessed significant leaps and transformations in how they are controlled to perform different functions. Initially, everything was done through a separate keyboard from the screen, consisting of numerical keys and navigation buttons that were prone to wear and tear over time. Additionally, the characters and numbers written on them were erasable, making it cumbersome and non-smooth to use when typing long texts, for example. These keys were later replaced by touchscreens with the advent of smartphones and advanced operating systems for phones like Android, allowing users to do almost everything on their smartphones with just a few simple touches.

The advancements did not stop there, as the systems of these phones evolved to understand specific user movements on the screen to perform a specific function without clicking on buttons and icons. This feature is now known as gestures, and it is available on almost all modern phones in various forms. If you are using a Samsung phone, below are some of the most important gestures that will greatly facilitate your use of the phone.

In general, the concept of gestures in phones refers to a specific tap, movement, or action that leads you to operate a specific tool, use a specific feature, or launch a specific application quickly and succinctly without the need for multiple steps and clicks on the screen. Long press, double tap, pressing two keys simultaneously, swiping the screen up, down, right, or left with a finger, scrolling with two or three fingers on the screen are types of gestures that can lead to quick access to a phone function.

The gestures feature is one of the advantages that are not often mentioned when introducing a new phone, resulting in many users not knowing much about how it works or how to use it. Additionally, some users may not be accustomed to using gestures in their daily lives, so the feature is not activated by default on Samsung phones, meaning you will not be able to use gestures on your phone unless you activate them first.

You are not required to activate all gestures at once, you can activate only the gestures you need. The phone’s settings allow you to enable each gesture separately, and we will explain how to activate some of these gestures on Samsung phones in the following paragraphs.

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One of the most useful features that your phone can provide is enabling you to connect with others or send text messages to them quickly and easily when needed urgently. Samsung phone gestures provide an easy and fast way to make calls and send messages to your contacts. All you need to do is select the desired contact from your phone app, then swipe the screen quickly with your finger from left to right if you want to call this person, or swipe the screen from right to left if you want to send a text message.

To activate this gesture for calling and sending text messages quickly, you need to first open the “Phone” app and press the button (⁝) at the top of the contact list to open the options menu. Then press “Settings,” and then select the “Other Call settings” option. Next, go to the “Swipe to calls or text” option and activate it. You can also tap on the option to see a demo on how to use the gesture.

When you receive a phone call that you do not want to answer or do not have the time or circumstances to do so, there should be a way to mute the ringing of the incoming call to avoid disturbing others without rejecting the call. Muting incoming calls and notifications on Samsung phones used to be done by pressing a side button with a normal press. Many users did not like this method as the side buttons were prone to damage, in addition to the possibility of accidentally locking the phone instead of muting the call if the user inadvertently pressed the power button for an extended period.

Muting incoming calls and notifications is now very easy thanks to gestures that allow the user to place the entire hand on the screen, meaning touching the phone screen using the palm and fingers together. This action will mute the phone and silence the incoming call alert if the phone does not stop ringing annoyingly, or by simply turning the phone face down to silence the ring.

In real life, the hand is often used as a signal meaning “stop,” and this may logically justify the use of this particular gesture to silence incoming calls and notifications on the phone. As mentioned, we will need to activate the gestures for muting incoming calls and notifications on Samsung phones before starting to use them. This can be done by opening the “Settings” app and going to “Advanced features,” then tapping on the “Motions and gestures” option. Afterward, navigate to the “Mute with gestures” option and activate it.

If you are a photography enthusiast who likes to capture important and exceptional moments or unusual phenomena around you, you may sometimes come across a natural phenomenon, an unusual event, or a captivating scene that quickly disappears or fades away, preventing you from capturing it unless you have a camera ready to use at your fingertips. Mobile phone cameras have made it easier to capture such unique images, but unlocking the phone to open the camera app could take time and cause you to miss the opportunity to capture your exceptional photos.

Samsung phone gestures provide a quick way to open the camera app and snap photos without the need to unlock the phone by simply double-tapping the power button. To do this, go to “Settings,” then to “Advanced features,” and press on the “Side Key” option. From here, select the “Quick launch camera” option under the “Double press” section.

The ability to take screenshots is commonly used as a quick and effective way to copy and save any image, text, content, or element displayed on the screen by capturing a static image of it. The most common ways to take screenshots on Android phones involve pressing a pair of side buttons simultaneously. However, another gesture can be assigned in Samsung phones to take quick screenshots by swiping the screen with the edge of the hand from right to left or left to right, taking into account that this gesture will not work when the keyboard is displayed. The keyboard must be hidden first to be able to take a screenshot by swiping the screen with the edge of the hand right or left.

You can enable the gesture for taking screenshots in Samsung phones by opening “Settings” and navigating to “Advanced features,” then tapping on “Motions and gestures.” After that, go to the “Palm swipe to capture” option and activate it.

Quick access to Google Assistant is another feature of gestures in Samsung phones. If you are using any other virtual assistant besides Google Assistant, you can also use this gesture to launch “Bixby,” “Finder,” or “Samsung Internet” browser. To activate this gesture in Samsung phones, go to “Settings,” then “Display,” and tap on the option to enable “Swipe gestures” to replace the three buttons at the bottom. Next, tap on “More options” and then go to “Swipe to open assistant app” and activate it.