S10 how-to guides

Understand Galaxy S10 Home Screen

You need to understand the contents of the Galaxy S10 home screen to use the phone effectively.

There are usually up to 11 types of items on Galax S10 Home screen. And they are usually designed and arranged for different functions and purposes.

This Galaxy S10 how-to guide explains what Galaxy S10 Home screen is, the items on the home screen, and how to use the 11 types of items on the home screen.

What is Galaxy S10 Home screen?

In Galaxy S10 (S10, S10+, S10e, or S1o 5G), you will deal with 8 types of screens:

  • Lock screen.  The lock screen is the first screen you will encounter after starting or wake up the phone. You need to unlock to access private data and apps.
  • Home screen. By default, after you unlock Galaxy S10, you will be directed to Galaxy S10 Home screen.
  • Apps screen.  Traditionally, in Android phones, the apps screen is called app drawer, where you list all installed apps. Typically, only part of the installed apps is added to the home screen. Apps screen usually is considered as part of the Home screen,
  • Edge screen (for S10, S10+, and S10 5G only). As explained in Galaxy S10 layout, edge screen actually is a software feature, rather than a dedicated screen.  The edge screen requires a curved edge of the display. Therefore, it is not available in Galaxy S10e due to its flat screen.
  • Recents (Overview) screen. You can find the list of recently used apps in the Recents screen. You can launch these apps in the split-screen view or pop-up view (multiwindow mode) as explained in this guide.
  • Notification panel.  You can swipe down from the Galaxy S10 status bar to access the notification panel.
  • Quick settings panel.  You can use the quick setting buttons to turn on or off some features on Galaxy S10 without opening Galaxy S10 Settings.
  • Individual app screen.

Galaxy S10 Home screen is the center of the phone. There is no way to bypass the home screen.

Galaxy S10 is protected by Galaxy S10 lock screen to prevent unauthorized access to your apps and data.  Therefore, the Home screen is always behind the lock screen.

You can access the Home screen in different ways:

  • After unlocking Galaxy S10, you should get the Galaxy S10 Home screen directly.
  • When you are using any apps, you can tap the Home button (or swipe up from the centerline if you are using Galaxy S10 navigation gestures) in the navigation bar to access the Galaxy S10 Home screen directly.
  • When you are using any apps, you can keep tapping the Back button in the navigation bar to return to the Home screen eventually. Some apps may require you to tap the back button several times before you get the Home screen. A few apps may ask you to confirm to exit the app. Anyway, the behavior of the back button in an app depends on individual apps. If you are using Galaxy S10 navigation gestures, you can swipe up from the left or right line (depending on your navigation button layout settings)
  • When you are in the apps screen, you can swipe up or swipe down to return to the Home screen.

If you are using an app in the full-screen mode, you can swipe down from the top of the screen or swipe upwards from the bottom of the screen, to bring up the navigation bar and navigation buttons (or navigation lines).

Understand the items on Galaxy S10 Home Screen

A typical Galaxy S10 Home screen with all types of contents is shown below.

Besides the wallpaper, you can find up to 11 types of items on the home screen (following the sequence in the screenshot): the status bar, app icons, app folders, app shortcuts, pinned files, widgets, photo frame (a special widget), edge screen handle,  panel indicators, favorite app tray, navigation bar.

A typical Galaxy S1o Home screen with all types of contents

1.  Status bar

On the top of Galaxy S10 Home screen, there is always a status bar with notification icons and status icons.

Samsung allows you to customize the number of notification icons to be displayed on the status bar on Galaxy S10.

If you want to know the meaning of Galaxy S10 notification icons and status icons, you may check this guide.

Please note, if you tap the status bar, it will be registered as swiping downwards, and therefore the notification panel will be open.

If you swipe down from the status bar twice (or swipe down with two fingers), you can then access Galaxy S10 quick setting buttons.

2. App icons

By default, when you got Galaxy S10, there are already some app icons. You can tap the icons to use the app.

When you install apps from Google Play Store, by default, they will also be added to the Galaxy S10 home screen. Of course, you can disable it in Galaxy S10 Settings. (DisplayHome screenAdd apps to Home screen).

On the Home screen, you can add multiple copies of one app. But in the Apps screen (app drawer), there is always only one icon for one app.

Technically, app icons on the Home screen are just shortcuts to the apps.  But in Galaxy S10 Apps screen, the app icons are the actual list of apps installed on the phone (with UI).

If you choose Home screen layout as Home screen only (without the apps screen), then you cannot add multiple copies of one app on the home screen.

3. App folders

You can use app folders to group apps so that you can find them quickly.

On your new Galaxy S10, by default, there are two app folders (Samsung and Google). You can create more or manage app folders as explained in this guide .

Please note, Galaxy S10 Home screen does not support nested app folders.  In other words, you can NOT add an app folder to another app folder in the Home screen.

4. App shortcuts

Google introduced App shortcuts in Android Nougat 7.1. Samsung implemented it in Android Oreo.

An app shortcut is a special function or action of an app.  It allows you to perform the specific task very quickly without navigating through the app.

An app shortcut is different from the widget because it is a static icon, which can be similar to, or totally different from the app icon.

You can tap and hold (long tap) the app icon on the Galaxy S10 home screen or on apps screen to access app shortcuts of the app.

5. Pinned files

You can create shortcuts for frequently used files on the Home screen.

On Galaxy S10, you can use My Files app to pin any files to the home screen as shown in this guide.

6. Widgets

A widget is a special app interface in the Android operating system.

The widget delivers quick and specific info on Galaxy S10 home screen without opening the app. For example, on the home screen, by default, there is a Weather widget showing local weather automatically.

7. Photo frame

The photo frame actually is a special widget allowing you to show photos on the home screen

Because many owners want to show photos on the home screen, a guide on how to show photos on Galaxy S9 home screen was created here. The guide works for Galaxy S10 perfectly.

8.  Edge screen handle

You can access edge screen by swiping from the handle to the screen.

On Galaxy S10, you can customize the location (left or right, and vertical location), size, color, and transparency of the handle.

Please check Galaxy S10 edge screen guide on how to use the Edge screen on Galaxy S10.

9. Home screen panel indicator

You can have multiple pages (panels) for Galaxy S10 Home screen.

By default, the leftmost panel is reserved for Bixby Home. Of course, you can hide Bixby home from the Home screen.

Besides, there is always one screen panel is designated as the “home” of Galaxy S10 Home screen.  When you keep tapping the home button, it should eventually return to this screen/panel.

This special panel is indicated by a house icon, instead of a dot. All other panes are indicated by a dot.

10.  Favorite apps tray

The favorite apps tray are present on all Galaxy S10 Home screen panels (pages).

You can place commonly used apps to the favorite tray so that you can access them quickly from any home screen panels.

You can also put app folders, app shortcuts, app pairs, or even pinned files,  into the favorite apps tray.

Galaxy S10 also allows you to hide the Apps icon so that you can put one more app in the tray.

11. Navigation bar and navigation buttons

On Galaxy S10, you can choose to use the traditional navigation bar with 3 navigation buttons or to use the navigation gestures as explained in this guide.

If you use navigation gestures with 3 reference lines, you need to remember the navigation button layout setting.

Gestures for Galaxy S10 Home screen

On the Home screen, you can use the following gestures:

  • Swipe down to open the notification panel. If you swipe down twice, you will get Galaxy S10 quick setting buttons. You can swipe down from the status bar, or from anywhere (you need to enable it in Galaxy S10 Settings)
  • Swipe up to open Galaxy S10 Apps screen.
  • Swipe left, and right to navigate through different Galaxy S10 home screen panels.
  • Swipe from the edge screen handle to the center of the screen to open the Galaxy S10 edge screen.
  • Pinch (or long tap) to enter Galaxy S10 Home screen edit mode.
  • Tap an app icon, or an app shortcut, or an app folder, or a widget, to open the corresponding app or app folder.
  • Long tap an app icon to get the context menu as shown below.
Long tap an app icon on Galaxy S10 Home screen

How to use Galaxy S10 Home screen landscape mode?

Galaxy S10 supports the landscape mode for Galaxy S10 Home screen (Galaxy S10 lock screen as well).

By default, the landscape mode for the Home screen is disabled. You can enable it in Galaxy S10 Settings, or quick settings panel.

The landscape mode for Galaxy S10 Home screen works even you turn off auto-rotate as explained in this guide.

Do you understand the items on Galaxy S10 Home screen on Galaxy S10, S10+, S10e, and S10 5G ? Do you have any questions about the Home screen?

If you have any questions or encounter any problems with contents of Galaxy S10 Home screen on Galaxy S10, S10e, S10+, and S10 5G, please let us know in the comment box below.

The community will help you find the answer.

If you have questions on new features of Samsung Galaxy S10, please check Galaxy S10 new features guides page.

For using Galaxy S10, please check Galaxy S10 how-to guides page.

You can find the detailed guides of using Galaxy S1o camera in Galaxy S10 camera guides page.

To find and use accessories for Galaxy S10, please check Galaxy S10 accessories guides page.

To read and download the official Samsung Galaxy S10 user guides (in PDF format) in your local language, please check Galaxy S10 user guides page.

Also, do not forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest update on Galaxy S10.

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