Unlock Your Samsung Phone’s Potential: Mastering One UI 9 Quick Settings

Samsung has consistently refined its One UI over the years, yet it feels like many users overlook one of the system’s most frequently accessed features: the Quick Settings panel. In One UI 9, this panel offers significantly more customization options than previous generations. I personally used the default configuration for a long time without issue, until I started experimenting. That’s when I discovered that a few seemingly minor adjustments could dramatically enhance the phone’s usability and overall user experience.

Optimizing Your Quick Settings in One UI

The Quick Settings in One UI can be tailored to not only look more unique but, more importantly, to align perfectly with your daily phone usage. Samsung has significantly refined this area in One UI 9, transforming it into a full-fledged system personalization feature rather than just a place to toggle Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

Customizing Your Quick Access Icons

Users can freely rearrange the layout of quick icons, changing their order, removing unnecessary ones, and adding new options from a comprehensive list. For instance, my primary quick access panel, visible with a single swipe, includes eight carefully selected options:

• Wi-Fi Calling
• Quick Share
• NFC
• Mobile Data
• Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Flashlight
• Airplane Mode
• Power Saving

These are the functions I access most frequently, hence their prominent placement. Expanding this panel reveals additional icons, totaling twenty, which include useful features like “Link to Windows” and “Do Not Disturb” mode.

Discovering More Shortcuts

Samsung’s One UI offers dozens of shortcuts beyond the default visible ones. To discover them, simply tap the pencil icon (often labeled “Edit”), select “Edit,” and then “Add control.” This section is a treasure trove for anyone looking to personalize their device. Options available include:

• Live Captions
• Battery Protection
• Take Screenshot
• Dolby Atmos
• Google Wallet
• Always On Display
• And many more unique functions

Taking a moment to reorganize this area can dramatically speed up your daily smartphone interactions. Placing frequently used functions like Wi-Fi, Do Not Disturb, Location, or Flashlight on the first screen is particularly beneficial for efficiency.

Beyond the Icons: Sliders and Media Controls

It’s important to remember that the Quick Settings panel isn’t just about circular icons. It also encompasses other crucial controls like mute options, brightness levels, volume sliders, and the media player. These elements can also be customized, allowing crucial functions to occupy more space and be more accessible for one-handed use.

I particularly recommend adjusting larger elements, such as the brightness and volume sliders. As an example, setting them vertically can make them much easier to reach with your thumb, improving one-handed operation. By customizing these elements, the Quick Settings panel evolves from a mere system add-on into a genuine smartphone control center. Instead of conforming to the manufacturer’s default scheme, you adapt it to your habits—and that’s precisely why many users appreciate the flexibility of Android with One UI.

For a deeper dive into the latest design changes, you might find our article on the Samsung One UI 9 Design Overhaul insightful. Also, explore What’s New in One UI 9: Multi-Window, AI, Cross-Device Features for more detailed information on other significant updates.

Enhancing Quick Settings with QuickStar

For even deeper customization of your Quick Settings, consider QuickStar, a powerful module within Samsung’s Good Lock suite. Good Lock significantly expands One UI’s personalization capabilities. QuickStar, in particular, empowers you to manage icons displayed on the status bar, allowing you to hide unnecessary indicators such as NFC, Bluetooth, alarm, location, or VPN. Additionally, in One UI 9, you can activate an internet connection speed indicator, a highly requested feature.

Advanced Customization Options

This tool also enables you to modify how the clock is presented, add the date or seconds, or even relocate the time to a different part of the status bar. The installation of QuickStar is straightforward: simply download the Good Lock application from the Galaxy Store, then install the QuickStar module from within Good Lock, and launch it via its dedicated icon.

Combining the system’s built-in options with the QuickStar module from Good Lock allows for an even more profound transformation of your Quick Settings panel. Users can not only freely reorder toggles, remove redundant tiles, and highlight frequently used functions but also adjust the spacing between them and experiment without a rigid grid layout.

One feature I particularly appreciate is QuickStar’s ability to change the entire panel’s color scheme, adjust background transparency, and even apply your own photos as graphical elements for selected interface parts, such as the main panel, media player, or brightness and volume sliders. Further options include setting the activation area of the pull-down panel relative to the notification panel, offering precise control over its accessibility.

I’ve also found the option to display exact volume and brightness levels directly alongside their sliders to be incredibly useful. This provides more accurate and easier control over device settings. If you’ve been using the same set of toggles and default Quick Settings for years, it’s definitely worth experimenting. The difference in phone usability can be noticeable within just a few hours.

Source: Original content. Opening photo: Adam Lulek

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Anuj Kushwaha

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