I replaced Samsung Edge Panels with this free app — and I'm not going back

There’s no shortage of great Android apps out there, but the sad part is that not all of them always get the attention they deserve. Some are niche, while others aren’t talked about enough. Panels falls into the last bucket for me. I stumbled onto it from a Reddit thread a few months ago, and now it’s something I can’t live without.

Panels looks like a simple app that adds a sidebar launcher to your Android phone, but that’s underselling it. My Galaxy S26 already has a built-in version of this called Edge Panels, but I still use this app over it. That alone should give you a hint about how good it actually is.

With Panels, everything is a swipe away

Panels is a free app that adds a sidebar launcher to the edge of your screen, and it works exactly as you’d expect. You swipe in from the edge to open a panel that lets you open apps, jump to contacts, glance at widgets, and access quick settings toggles.

The sidebar is swipeable and split into three pages. The first is a mini app drawer with a favorites tab, so you can get to your important apps faster. The second is the shortcuts panel, where you can drop in apps, contacts, quick settings, websites, and more. The third is for widgets, so you can glance and even interact with them without actually going to the home screen. That’s just the default setup, though. You can add more pages if you need extra room.

Beyond simply launching apps, I can set any app to always open straight into windowed mode. It even lets me add app pairs to open two apps together in a split-screen view. Then there are website shortcuts, which are my favorite. Instead of opening the browser and tapping a bookmark to visit a site of my choice, I can just tap the site shortcut in the side panel, which saves me a few taps.

I’ve also added a bunch of shortcuts for the settings I need daily, like the sound mode, mobile data, brightness control, and location mode. I even have one for taking screenshots, so I can capture them easily without using the physical buttons.

And that’s not all. I’ve got direct-dial shortcuts for my wife, WhatsApp shortcuts for specific chats, one-tap directions for home, and even triggers for my favorite routines. Samsung’s Edge Panel is fine for what it does, but it only goes so far. That’s exactly why Panels has stuck around on my phone.

You can make Panels work your way

The other thing I like about Panels is that it doesn’t force its layout on you. You get full control over customization.

Head into its settings menu, and you can add new panels if you need more room. And if you don’t want to swipe too much, the app also lets you move specific pages to the left edge or to the bottom of the screen. That said, you don’t necessarily need extra pages to fit more stuff. What I’ve done instead is increase the panel width and the number of rows, which lets me fit more shortcuts on a single page without adding more panels.

From that same menu, you can reposition the trigger point anywhere along the edge of the screen and resize the panel height. I’ve kept mine on the lower half so it’s easy to reach with one hand. There are also options to change the icon style, size, and font, and even adjust the color scheme to match your phone’s theme. I know there are a lot of options, but you don’t have to change any of them if the default setup already works for you.

Panels solves two of my biggest smartphone problems

Now let’s talk about the important part: what makes Panels so special. I’ll be honest, Panels isn’t the kind of app that feels mind-blowing, the way something like MacroDroid or LocalSend does. But it has helped me with a couple of things.

The first is that I go to the home screen and the app drawer a lot less now. With Panels, I just swipe in from the edge, find what I need, and switch straight to it. The same goes for widgets. I can check on my earbuds’ battery, peek at my calendar, or skim recent WhatsApp chats from any screen. It’s also helped me declutter my home screen a bit, though I’ll admit there are still plenty of widgets sitting there.

The second thing is one-handed use. My Galaxy S26 isn’t huge, but neither are my hands, so reaching to the top of the screen to pull down Quick Settings is always a bit of a stretch. Panels gives me an alternative because I can put my most-used shortcuts right there. I’ve also set my trigger point on the side I naturally hold my phone with, so everything I need is basically right under my thumb. It’s only been a few months since I started using the app, but it has already become muscle memory.

It’s not without its flaws, but that’s okay

Panels isn’t a perfect app. I personally enjoy using it, but I also know that not everyone will feel that way, at least not right away. The biggest issue is the swipe gesture. Since it triggers from the edge of the screen, it occasionally clashes with Android’s own gesture navigation, specifically the back gesture. Even after using the app for this long, I still get the odd accidental mis-swipe, where I want to open the panel but end up going back instead.

The second is ads, though they are not really a big deal since they only show up in the app settings menu. In fact, most of the features you’d want are available in the free version. But if you do want to go ad-free, the paid version is only $1.50 for lifetime access, which is about as cheap as it gets for an app this useful.

None of this is a deal-breaker for me, but I’m curious what you think. Is this an app you’d want to use? Share your thoughts in the comments below.