5 One UI settings I always turn off on my Samsung Galaxy phone

My primary smartphone is an Android, and unless I’m testing a new device, I almost always use a Galaxy phone. I find One UI the best Android interface out there currently. It’s fast, customizable, and packed with several useful features that other Android skins don’t offer.

That said, I can’t use One UI in its default settings: some aren’t configured to my preferences, while others are overly privacy-invasive and harvest data in the background. For this reason, I always disable numerous One UI settings on any Galaxy phone before I start using it. Here are some crucial ones you can consider turning off too.

Media page

Samsung has a dedicated media screen on its Galaxy phones. It appears to the left of the home screen and shows a curated feed of the latest news from the Samsung News app or Google Discover. Although many users use it to keep up with the latest news, I prefer not to have it on my home screen for several reasons.

For one, I’ve accidentally landed on this screen way too many times while it was enabled, which is quite annoying. I’m also not a fan of its interface and curation. Sure, I could replace Samsung News with Google Discover, but I already have an app for that. Add to that the fact that it increases data and battery usage — albeit in small amounts — and it’s hard to justify leaving the feature enabled on my phone.

To disable the media page on your Galaxy phone, go to the far left of the screen. Tap the icon (two vertically stacked boxes with a gear icon) at the top of the screen and, on the following screen, toggle the On switch to Off.

Galaxy Store notifications

The Galaxy Store is an alternative app store that comes bundled with One UI. It hosts plenty of apps and games, including Samsung exclusives like Good Lock, and offers themes, wallpapers, icon packs, fonts, and more to help you personalize your device. You’ll also find exclusive perks and discounts in the app, and it often sends notifications informing you about them.

However, Galaxy Store notifications don’t just stop at rewards and coupons. The app also sends them app updates and various other promotions and marketing messages, which is annoying. Thankfully, you can disable notifications for the app categorically, so only important alerts still come through. I’ve disabled notifications for all categories except for Downloads and Actions in progress.

It’s easy to do this. Go to Settings -> Apps and select Galaxy Store. Next, select Notifications -> Notification categories. Here, toggle off the switch next to the categories you don’t want notifications from. If you don’t see the Notification categories option on the Galaxy Store app page, you’ll need to enable it first. In the Settings app, go to Notifications -> Advanced settings. Toggle on the switch next to Manage notification categories for each app.

Samsung Wallet gesture

Samsung Wallet (or Samsung Pay) is a convenient way to store cards and make digital payments, and I use it every day for contactless payments. However, I hate its quick-access gesture, which lets you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to jump right into Samsung Wallet. And unfortunately, it’s enabled by default.

Sure, it offers quick access to your Samsung Wallet, but it’s a huge annoyance if you use gesture navigation: I’ve ended up in Samsung Wallet way too many times when trying to go to the home screen or access the Recents menu. I know the gesture is configurable, but it doesn’t help much, so I disable it completely.

To do this, open the Samsung Wallet app on your phone. Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner and select Settings. Go to Quick access -> Swipe up gesture and toggle off the switches next to Lock Screen, Home screen, and Screen off.

I also set up the Side button to quickly access Samsung Wallet. You can do this too. On the Quick access settings page, tap Side button, which takes you to the Side button’s Double press settings page. Select Quick launch Samsung Wallet. You can now double-tap the Side button to go into your wallet. This will replace the Camera action for the double-tap gesture.

Customization Service

By default, Samsung collects a heap of information about you to provide a tailored experience throughout the device. This information could be anything: your device details, personal details, usage behavior, geolocation, or data from apps on your phone. An automated system analyzes this information and sends it to services or apps, which then use it to improve their services, send custom ads for products and services, and more.

However, I value privacy more than having a slightly personalized experience. And the best way to stop this profiling is to disable the Customization Service setting on my Galaxy phone. If you don’t want to share your personal information with Samsung, consider turning it off.

Open Settings and tap your Samsung account at the top. Go to Security and privacy -> Customization Service, then flip the toggle at the top off. Hit the Stop button on the confirmation prompt to confirm the action. Keep in mind that disabling this feature only stops Samsung from collecting information going forward; it doesn’t delete the existing information that Samsung has already collected.

Personal Data Intelligence

Samsung doesn’t just profile you to offer a tailored user experience on its Galaxy phones. It also powers the Personal Data Engine, which enables context-aware AI features such as Now Brief, natural-language search in Gallery, auto-fill suggestions, and more. Your Galaxy phone has a setting — Personal Data Intelligence — that’s enabled by default and collects information about your phone usage to enable these features.

I rarely use these features on my phone, though. And even when I had Personal Data Intelligence turned on, it never offered any game-changing suggestions that would have convinced me to keep using it. That’s when I decided to turn it off.

To turn off Personal Data Intelligence, go to Settings -> Security and privacy. Scroll down to the bottom and select More privacy settings. Toggle off the Personal data intelligence switch, and hit Turn off when prompted to confirm. Alternatively, tap Personal data intelligence to visit its dedicated page and learn more about the feature. You can also toggle the setting off here, or disable certain AI features individually if you want.

Those are just a few of the many One UI settings I turn off on my Galaxy phone. I also disable some other features and settings. For example, I change the Quick Settings panel setting from Separate to Together for one-handed convenience. Similarly, I also turn off Always On Display because I often keep my phone face down, Lift to Wake because it accidentally wakes the screen and registers interactions, and Bixby on Side button because I never use it.