20 Tips to Customize Home Screen on Samsung Phones

The beauty of an Android phone is that you can customize almost every aspect of your phone. If you have been wondering how to make your Samsung Galaxy phone’s Home screen look more appealing, we will help you achieve just that.

Tip: Want to customize your Android lock screen instead? We show you how.

1. Set a Custom Wallpaper

Samsung Galaxy phones offer a nice variety of wallpapers that can be set on the Lock or Home screen. But you can also set any custom image from your gallery as your phone’s wallpaper as shown in the following steps:

1. Go to “Settings -> Wallpaper and style -> Browse my wallpapers.”

2. Select “Gallery” and choose the picture that you want to set as your wallpaper. Tap on “Done.”

3. You’ll be asked whether you want to use the same wallpaper for the Lock and Home screen or different wallpapers. Uncheck “Lock screen” if you want to apply the wallpaper only to the Home screen. Then, tap on the “Preview” button.

4. Use the pinch in and out gesture to zoom in and out of the wallpaper. Finally, tap on “Done.”

Pro Tip: You can set custom wallpaper on your Samsung Galaxy phone from the gallery as well. Open the desired photo in the Samsung Gallery app and tap on the three-dot icon. Select “Set as wallpaper.”

2. Add Filter to Wallpaper

If you wish to use a custom photo as your phone’s wallpaper, you can customize it by adding a filter to it so that it matches the aesthetics of your Home screen.

1. Select your preferred wallpaper as we showed you previously.
2. Uncheck “Lock screen” and tap on “Preview.”

3. On the preview screen, tap on the “Filter” button and apply the desired filter from the list at the bottom.

4. Tap on “Done” to add the filter to your wallpaper.

Good to know: need a new wallpaper every day? Check out these automatic wallpaper-changing Android apps.

3. Match App Icons Color to Wallpaper

You can have the Samsung stock app icons like Phone, Messages, Notes, etc. use a color palette based on the colors in the Home screen wallpaper. That way your entire phone including Quick settings and other areas will have the same color palette.

1. Go to “Settings -> Wallpaper and style -> Color palette.”

2. Enable the toggle next to “Color Palette” and choose a color scheme under
   “Wallpaper colors” or “Basic colors.” Swipe left to see more color palettes.

3. Turn on the toggle next to “Apply palette to color icons” and finally hit the “Apply” button.

4. This is how our Samsung phone looks after applying a color palette to app icons:

4. Disable App Drawer

Instead of the App drawer, you can have all your installed apps show on your phone’s Home screen. For that, you will have to disable the App drawer or the Apps screen.

1. Go to “Settings -> Home screen -> Home screen layout.”

2. Select “Home screen only” and hit the “Apply” button.

5. Change the Number of App Rows on the Home Screen

Whether you want to change the size of app icons or have more apps showing on the Home screen, Samsung lets you do both.

1. To change the number of app icons that will show on each Home screen page, go to “Settings -> Home screen -> Home screen grid.”

2. Select the grid size (number of columns x number of rows) from the options at the bottom and hit “Done.”

6. Change the Number of App Icons in a Folder

Samsung also lets you customize the number of rows or columns in an app folder.

Go to “Settings -> Home screen -> Folder grid” and choose the desired size from there. Keep in mind that this setting will change the folder grid size for both the Home screen and the App drawer.

Pro Tip: if you aren’t satisfied with these folder grid size options, install the Good Lock app from the Galaxy Store and go to “Home Up -> Folder -> Folder grid.” Select the preferred grid size.

7. Show Google Discover on Home Screen

If you enjoy using Google Discover Feed on your phone, you can add it on your Samsung phone as well without using a third-party app.

1. Go to “Settings -> Home screen.”

2. Tap on “Add media page to Home screen.”

3. Enable it on the next screen and choose “Google Discover.”

Good to know: swipe to the leftmost page of your Samsung Home screen and you will see the Google Discover Feed.

8. Add More Apps in Dock

The dock is the area at the bottom of your Home screen. By default, Samsung allows you to add only four apps to the dock. But, you can add one more app or folder in the dock if you disable the App drawer icon.

1. Go to “Settings -> Home screen.”

2. Turn off the toggle next to “Show apps button on Home screen.”

3. Now, go to your Home screen and drag any app or folder to the dock.

9. Add More Home Screen Pages

Your Samsung phone will automatically create new pages to accommodate more apps. But you can also manually add more Home screen pages.

1. To do so, long press on any empty space on the home screen.
2. Scroll through the available pages until you see the empty page with the “+” button.

3. Tap on it to create a new page.
4. Then, press anywhere to add the page.

Tip: learn how to set a different wallpaper on each home screen page.

10. Delete a Home Screen Page

1. To remove any Home screen page, long press any empty space on the Home screen.
2. The available pages will show up. Tap on the “Delete” icon at the top of the page that you want to remove.

Note: deleting a page will only remove the app icons from the Home screen, they will not be deleted permanently.

11. Set a New Main Home Screen

If you have customized a certain Home screen page to your liking, you can set it as your main Home screen page instead of the default one.

1. To change the main Home screen page, long press anywhere on the Home screen. The available pages will show up.
2. Tap on the “Home” icon on the top of the page that you want to set as the main page.

12. Reorder Home Screen Pages

The home screen pages will show up in the order that they were created on your Samsung Galaxy phone. But, you can reorder them according to your preference.

For that, touch and hold an empty space on the home screen. Once the pages show up, hold and drag the home screen that you want to move to its new position.

13. Resize Widgets

It wouldn’t surprise you if we told you that you could add widgets to your home screen pages. It’s also possible to resize them.

1. Add the desired widget to the home screen.
2. Long press on the widget until you see a border around the widget.
3. Drag the widget using one of the circular symbols on the border to resize it.

14. Stack Widgets

If you like having widgets on the home screen but are bothered by the sheer amount of space that they take, Samsung One UI 5 has a solution for you in the form of widget stacks. As the name suggests, a widget stack can hold multiple widgets in the place of one widget.

1. To create a widget stack, first, add one widget to the Home screen. For that, long press on the Home screen and select “Widgets.”

2. Add the desired widget by pressing the “Add” button on the widget.
3. Long press on the widget on the Home screen and select “Create stack.”

4. Select another widget that you want to add to the stack and hit the “Add” button. Similarly, add more widgets.
5. After you have created a widget stack, you need to swipe right or left on the widget stack to switch between widgets.

Tip: Long press on the widget stack and select “Edit” stack to delete any widget from the stack.

15. Switch App Icon Badges Style

Another Home screen customization that you can make on your Samsung Galaxy phone is to change the app icon badge style. You can choose from a number or dot style.

1. Go to “Settings -> Home screen.”

2. Tap on “App icon badges.” Select the preferred badge style.

Tip: Need to capture your smartphone screen? Here’s how you can take a long screenshot on any Android device.

16. Apply Theme to Home Screen

What’s customization if you can’t apply themes? Thankfully, Samsung Galaxy phones let you customize your entire phone including the Home screen by using themes.

1. Go to “Settings -> Themes.” Find a theme that you want to use.

2. Tap on it and hit the “Download -> Apply” buttons.

17. Open Folders in Popup Style

The folders that you have created on the Home screen will typically show in a full-screen view on your Samsung Galaxy phone. But, you can change it to open in a pop-up style with the help of the Good Lock app.

1. Install and open the Good Lock app on your Samsung Galaxy phone.
2. Tap on the “HomeUp” module to download it. Once the process is completed, tap on it again to open it.

3. Go to “Folder” and enable the toggle next to “Popup folder.”

4. Tap on the “Popup folder” text and customize the popup font color, background color, and transparency.

18. Hide App Icon Label

Do you find app labels distracting on the Home screen of your Samsung phone? Well, you can disable them using the Good Lock app.

1. Open the Good Lock app on your phone.
2. Go to the “Home Up” module and tap on “Home screen.”

3. Scroll down and turn off the toggle next to the “Hide app icon label.”

Pro tip: Learn how to set custom icons for Android apps.

19. Change Recent Apps Screen Layout

Don’t like how the apps show up on the Recent apps screen of your Home screen? The Home Up module of the Good Lock app lets you change the layout style of the task changer.

1. In the Good Lock app on your phone, go to “Home Up -> Task Changer.”  

2. Enable the toggle at the top and select the preferred layout style from list, grid, stack, vertical list, or slim list.

20. Lock Home Screen Layout

Once you have made all the customizations to your Home screen, you can lock it so that any accidental touch doesn’t remove or reposition any app or widget.

1. Go to “Settings -> Home screen.”

2. Enable the toggle next to the “Lock home screen layout.”

If you still need to apply even more customizations to your device, you can make your Samsung phone look like an iPhone or Google Pixel.

All screenshots by Mehvish Mushtaq