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Top 11 new features in Galaxy S20 Android 11 update

By simon 2 Comments Last Modified: January 18, 2021 · Published on: December 29, 2020

Samsung officially released Galaxy S20 Android 11 update in early December 2020 globally. Galaxy S20 owners in most regions will get the Android 11 update (One UI 3.0) by the end of 2020.

Of course, in a few regions, owners have to wait and will get the update in January or February 2021.

Galaxy S20 Android 11 update brings a refreshed One UI 3.0 with most (not all) Android 11 features. This Galaxy S20 guide explains the top 11 new features in the Galaxy S20 Android 11 update to help you jumpstart with the new UI and new features.

This guide applies to all Galaxy S20 models (Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 FE, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra) because the new features and the new UI are almost identical on all these phones.

Please follow this guide to update Galaxy S20 to Android 11.

One UI 3.0 with a refreshed visual design

Samsung now updates One UI with each Android update. With Galaxy S20 Android 11 update, One UI was updated to version 3.0 with a refreshed visual design.

You will find One UI 3.0 offers generous space (empty region). But there are fewer wasted spaces compared to One UI 2 and One UI 2.5. So, most users will feel more relaxed when using the phone.

One UI 3.0 also introduced a few new visual effects to help you quickly focus on what matters most.

But they are controversial. Some owners probably will not like some of them. For example, the blurred effect for notifications may irritate some users depending on the wallpaper used. Unfortunately, Samsung did not offer the options to turn them off, at least, up to now.

Overall, aesthetic improvements in One UI 3.0 are obvious. They make the UI modern and stylish.

Please note, Samsung removed the feature of customising the app icon shapes in this Android 11 update.

Revamped notifications

Some major improvements and new features in Android 11 are notification related. They make notifications very convenient to use, intuitive and interactive.

Samsung implemented almost all of them and added a few of their own.

Notification history

Sometimes, you may want to re-read a few notifications that were dismissed inadvertently. Or you may just want to check whether you missed any important notifications.

Android 11 introduced notification history, which allows you to check all notifications (of course including dismissed and silent notifications) in the … Read the rest

How to use Do Not Disturb on Samsung Galaxy S20?

By simon 2 Comments Last Modified: January 6, 2021 · Published on: September 12, 2020

Do Not Disturb (DND) allows you to escape from nonurgent disruptions from your phone while important calls, alarms, notifications can still alert you.

This Galaxy S20 guide explains what Do Not Disturb (DND) on Samsung Galaxy S20 is, how to enable and disable it on-the-fly, or based on predefined schedules, how to customize Do Not Disturb on Samsung Galaxy S20 so that you can allow specific contacts to reach you and certain apps to alert you.

The DND feature is common on most Galaxy phones. So this guide applies to not only Galaxy S20 but also other Samsung Galaxy phones with Android 10, for example, Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy S9, and Galaxy Note 9.

What is Do Not Disturb?

Android Marshmallow (Android 6) introduced the Do Not Disturb to help users limit interruptions from the phone and therefore improve productivity.

Over the last a few Android releases, Google fine-tuned this feature to make it easy to understand and easy to use.

Basically, on Samsung Galaxy S20, Do Not Disturb mode allows you to filter interruptions so that:

Only some contacts can ring you.
Most notifications are silenced.
You can choose to hide specific or even all notifications.
You can manage an exception list.

Please note, Samsung removed some Do Not Disturb features found in the stock Android, for example,

You cannot trigger DND automatically based on calendar events. In most other Android phones, you can add event-based rules to turn on DND automatically.
You cannot allow apps to overwrite DND.

So, do not assume Do Not Disturb on Samsung Galaxy S20 is identical to many non-Samsung Android phones.

How to enable and disable Do Not Disturb on Samsung Galaxy S20 on-the-fly?

In addition to turning on/off Do Not Disturb automatically (read on), there are a few different ways to enable or disable Do Not Disturb on Samsung Galaxy S20 on-the-fly.

Method 1: from Galaxy S20 Quick Settings

You can swipe down twice from the status bar, or from the top of the screen (when the status bar is hidden, e.g., in full-screen mode), to access Galaxy S20 quick settings panel.

As shown in the screenshot below, you can find the Do not disturb button.

Tap the Do not disturb button to enable or disable DND mode immediately on Galaxy S20.

You can tap and hold the button to … Read the rest

How to customize notification icon style in Galaxy S20 status bar?

By simon 2 Comments Last Modified: September 15, 2020 · Published on: March 13, 2020

Galaxy S20 allows you to customize notification icon style in the status bar to avoid overcrowded icons.

You can choose to show all notification icons, last 3 icons, or the total number of notification icons in Galaxy S20 status bar.

This Galaxy S20 guide explains the details of Galaxy S20 status bar, the icon arrangements, and how to customize notification icon style in Galaxy S20 status bar to hide notification icons, show 3 recent icons, show all notification icons, or only show the number of notifications in the status bar.

Please note, the status bar and notification icons work identically on Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra, although there are significant differences among these 3 phones.

What is Galaxy S20 status bar?

Like all other Android phones (even iPhones), the top part of the Galaxy S20 screen is reserved for the system to show status icons and notification icons.

As shown in the screenshot below., a typical Galaxy S20 status bar has two parts separated by the punching hole of the front-facing camera:

Notification icons (and time, which cannot be disabled) aligned to the left edge on the left side of the front camera.
Status icons aligned to the right edge on the right side of the front camera.

Since Galaxy S8, Samsung allows you to limit the total number of notification icons on the status bar. Galaxy S20 allows more options to customize notification style on the status bar.

Actually, all Galaxy phones with the Android 10 update has a similar feature.

What is the dot in the Galaxy S20 status bar?

You may notice the dot icon, as shown in the screenshot above (marked in the green circle), on the rightmost of the status bar.

The dot icon in the Galaxy S20 status bar means “and more”. In other words, the dot icon tells you there are more than 3 notifications icons.

By default, Galaxy S20 status bar only displays up to 3 notification icons. If there are more than 3, the most recent 3 notification icons will be shown and the dot icon starts to appear.

Of course, you can change this default behaviour to customize notification icon style on Galaxy S20 status bar (read on).

Anyway, do not be panic when you see the dot icon on the status bar.

You may check this guide to understand the meaning of the status … Read the rest

Galaxy S20 LED View Cover (LED Wallet Cover)

By simon 3 Comments Last Modified: March 7, 2021 · Published on: March 7, 2020

Galaxy S20 LED view cover (aka Galaxy S20 LED wallet cover) is one of the official accessories for Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra.

This Galaxy S20 accessories guide explains the unique features of the Galaxy S20 LED View cover, shows you how to use the cover (including assign and customise LED cions, accept and reject calls, control music), answers some questions you may have on this cover. A no-nonsense review of Galaxy S20 LED View cover is also included to help you decide whether this cover is for you.

The LED View cover works identically on Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra, although there are some differences among these three Galaxy S20 models. So, in this guide, Galaxy S20 refers to all of these 3 models.

How does the Galaxy S20 LED View Cover (LED Wallet Cover) work?

LED View cover, which is a successor of LED Flip cover, was first introduced with the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Samsung changed the design and materials over the years.

But the fundamentals are still the same.

All Samsung LED covers, including the old LED Flip cover, LED View cover (LED Wallet cover in some regions), and the LED back cover, work through NFC technology.

There is no battery in the LED cover. The LED cover get power through NFC, NOT through wireless charging. But it does affect wireless charging (for safety reasons). When you charge Galaxy S20 battery with a wireless charging pad, the wireless charging will be paused automatically when LED icons are shown. And it resumes once the LED disappears.

The communication between the phone and the cover does NOT rely on the NFC settings. It is hardcoded in the firmware. Even you turn off NFC on your phone, the LED cover still works normally.

So, this is totally different from how S Pen on Galaxy Note devices works. S Pen does NOT use NFC.

The old S Pen (until Galaxy Note 8) does not have a battery. You do not need to charge it. These old S Pens get power from the screen (through electro-magnetic grid under the screen) when you use it.

The new S Pen in Note 9 has a supercapacitor and the S Pen in Note 10 has a real battery. Both of them will be charged when you put them in the S Pen slot. The “wireless charging” is … Read the rest