Samsung owners are just realising three hidden tricks including a way to hide secret apps

FANS of Samsung mobiles are only now realising they have three hidden tricks – including a cunning way to hide secret apps.

The popular phones come packed with a host of hidden hacks for users to use but it seems some have eluded most users.

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From using Bixby as the ultimate shortcut to hidden Quick settings here are three easy hacks many people don’t seem to know about.

Bixby is the ultimate shortcut

Samsung Galaxy phones include Bixby which is billed as a voice interface rather than just a mere voice assistant.

That means it can do almost anything on your phone.

If you’re not sure of how to do something, just ask Bixby.

Bixby is thought to be more useful than the iPhone’s Siri as it can be used as a shortcut.

If users don’t know how to turn on things like your wi-fi hotspot or activate wireless power-sharing, instead of fumbling about on your phone trying to get things to work, just ask Bixby instead.

You don’t even have to say its name to operate it, all you need to do is hold the side button and say: “Turn on my wi-fi hotspot” or “activate wireless power sharing”.

Bixby then will take you to right place you need to go to.

It makes things faster than having to scroll through the settings menu or search from the top of settings.

Hidden Quick settings buttons are hidden shortcuts

The Quick settings are an easy way to toggle wi-fi, Bluetooth and other settings but they can also be an easy way to hide shortcuts and all Android phone makers include exclusive features that you can activate using Quick settings buttons.

To locate these on Samsung phones, swipe down from the home screen and open the Notification shade.

Then swipe again to see the full grid of Quick settings buttons.

Swipe left, then tap the + button to find all the hidden buttons.

Users can add Quick settings buttons for Kids mode, so you can quickly switch into a kid-friendly screen before handing your phone over to a youngster.

You can also activate the Secure Folder from the Quick settings and activated Focus Modes like the Theatre mode.

If you hold your finger on any Quick settings button your Galaxy phone will take you to the appropriate menu.

Hold down the wi-fi button and a full list of all the wi-fi networks and settings will come up.

If you hold down on the Flashlight Quick settings you can alter the brightness of the flashlight.

Hide apps you never need to see

Cleaning up your phone can be its own form of a shortcut – by removing the apps you don’t need from your app screen this will make it faster to locate the ones you do use.

While some apps need to be loaded on your phone, you might not need them to be visible on your home screen.

While these apps can’t be deleted, you don’t need their icons hanging about and take up valuable space.

To do this, go to settings and then home screen settings and then hide the relevant ones you don’t need on home and apps screen.

Users might want to hide apps like Gboard, the Google keyboard that comes loaded on most Galaxy phones.

You probably don’t need to tap on the app icon after you start using the keyboard, since you can access settings directly from the keyboard itself.

There are though apps from Samsung or your wireless carrier that you don’t want and you can’t remove.

These are impossible to delete.

Users may want to make a Junk Drawer folder to keep those in or you can just hide them from settings.

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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk