Best Samsung Galaxy smartphone motions and gestures to check out

It’s safe to say that Samsung is one of the most important companies that helps set the bar when it comes to UI design in the Android world. Gestures form a large part of this design. The mechanisms by which we interact with our phones are crucial to this, after all.

To that end, Samsung has built several smart navigation and gesture controls into their Galaxy devices. Do note that while some of these gestures have been deprecated over the years, third-party apps and services are available for enabling these features once again.

Basic gestures

1. App switcher

Tap the multitasking button to view running and background apps. Swipe through these apps and tap to select, or swipe up on the app to close it. This last gesture is useful if an app is acting up or not responding properly. Do note however, that closing apps in such a way doesn’t improve performance in any way.

ALSO READ: Samsung split screen feature: Here’s how to maximise your productivity on your Galaxy device

2. Google Assistant

Swipe diagonally from any of the bottom corners to directly access Google Assistant.

Advanced gestures

To enable advanced gestures, head to Settings > Advanced features > Motions and gestures. Here, you’ll be able to enable or disable the following gestures 

1. Lift to wake

When enabled, simply picking up the phone will wake the display and show you the lock screen. 

2. Double-tap

This gesture lets you turn the screen on or off by tapping on it twice. This is a convenient gesture to have enabled as you can simply double-tap your phone when it is on, say, your desk, to check notifications or the time.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: What’s different? 

3. Palm swipe

Swiping across the screen with your palm can be used to trigger a screenshot. This is more convenient than using the screenshot button combo in many situations. 

4. Mute calls

Another useful gesture to enable lets you put your hand over the display to mute calls. You can also flip the phone over to mute calls. 

Swipe gestures

Swipe gestures might be disabled on some Galaxy phones. Here’s how to enable them, or add them if they’re missing. 

To enable swipe gestures, head to Settings > Display > Navigation > Swipe gestures. If you don’t see this option, download the Good Lock app and then download NavStar from Good Lock. Open NavStar and click on the ‘Enable extra gesture settings’ toggle to enable swipe gestures. 

Once extra gesture settings have been enabled, you can do the following:

1. Swipe up from the bottom edge of the display to go to the Home Screen. This can happen in portrait and landscape orientation. 

2. Swipe in from the left or right edge to go back one page. This is more intuitive than using the back button.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S22 to Flip4: These older phones too are getting the Galaxy AI update 

3. Swipe up from bottom and hold to open the app switcher. This is similar to how it works on Apple’s iPhones. 

S-Pen gestures

If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone that supports the S-Pen, there are a whole host of additional gestures you can access. These include the following:

1. Double-tap to open Bixby vision. 

2. Hold button and swipe up to return to the home screen. 

3. Hold button and swipe left or right to switch between recently opened apps 

4. Hold button and draw to select and crop content 

Within the camera, the S-Pen can be used to…

1. Swipe left or right to switch camera modes. 

2. Swipe up or down to scroll or zoom.

3. Perform circular motion with the S-Pen to control volume. 

4. Hold the S-Pen button to take pictures.

ALSO READ: A guide to using the Camera Assistant app on Samsung Galaxy smartphones

Samsung Galaxy smartphones are powerful devices with a ton of features and customisation options. Familiarising yourself with all the tools and gestures that Samsung and third-party apps make available to us is a great way to extract the most from your Galaxy phone. We hope this small tutorial was just what you needed to get started!