7 issues I miss about Samsung since switching to a Pixel

I’ve used lots of Nexus and Pixels up to now, 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 collection. Just a few months in the past, I began interested by 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 ten 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 couple 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 private home display, letting you place a number of alarms in a single place. Toggling all the alarms in a bunch with the press of a single button saves time and is a lot simpler than having to scroll by way of a listing of alarms to seek out the suitable 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 seemingly planning to deal with complaints, however for now, it appears like a multitude.

Good Lock is a group of modules that allow you to customise and modify completely 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, within the overview display, and in all places else you’d count on. Subsequent, there’s Sound Assistant. Because the identify suggests, this module allows 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 quantity keys with the display 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 must 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 do. As a substitute 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 be able to see within the recording above, swiping diagonally up opens the overview display, swiping out goes again, and swiping diagonally down goes house. Having full navigation with out stretching my thumb to the underside of the display 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 could hyperlink up. Consider it as Samsung’s reply to Apple’s Siri Shortcuts. Modes and Routines can management every thing 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 recreation and Bluetooth controller are related.

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 and dims my show, activates the blue gentle filter, and mutes all sound. Having the ability to modify all of these settings with a single faucet saves lots of squinting at my cellphone when a migraine aura is making every thing blurry.

The latter routine makes certain I by no means miss any of the over-the-phone physician’s appointments I’ve often. With all the 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 like having widgets on my house display, and Samsung makes it simpler than ever to make use of them in a means that’s each helpful and pleasing to take a look at. Widget stacks allow you to “stack” widgets of the identical measurement on high of one another and scroll by way of them. This fashion, you possibly can have as many widgets as you would ever want on one display with out your setup trying like a multitude. 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 Stay Updates, an Android 16 characteristic that reveals real-time data, resembling navigation, sports activities scores, and extra, in a notification What frustrates me with Stay Updates on the Pixel is that few apps assist it — I can’t get Google Maps to show instructions this fashion, though Samsung telephones on Android 15 have been ready to do that with Maps and extra since One UI 7 was launched earlier this yr.

Samsung obtained Google’s personal apps working with its implementation months earlier than Google might do the identical for Pixels. To make issues worse, media controls received’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 the rest, and it’s disappointing that I received’t be capable of try this on my Pixel.

The Edge Panel is a love-it-or-hate-it characteristic, and I find it irresistible. A small deal with in conjunction with the display allows you to pull out varied 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 anyplace in your cellphone, a easy swipe offers you entry to all your 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 effectively, it’s nowhere close to as clean an expertise as what Samsung has constructed into One UI.

I exploit multi-window on my Android units on a regular basis. The Pixel matches Samsung’s units for split-screen multitasking, nevertheless it doesn’t come near pop-up home windows. These freeform apps behave as they’d in a desktop surroundings, so you possibly can minimise, resize, and drag them round your display. 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 technique. Pop-up home windows tie again into Edge Panels, too, as you possibly can drag an app from the apps panel to the middle of the display to launch it in a window.

The Pixel does have choices. Chat Bubbles allow you to put conversations in a floating bubble, however this must 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 exhibiting up as a standard notification. It additionally solely allows you to work together with the chosen dialog, so you possibly can’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 should use these purposes usually as a substitute of being restricted to a selected message thread.

Chat Bubbles really feel like a crude, half-baked resolution fairly than a dependable characteristic I’d need to use on a regular basis. Actually, Chat Bubbles are switched off by default and buried within the settings menu, so it appears like Google has given up on it.

I miss lots of 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 at some point.

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