What is OneUI Home? A Guide to Samsung’s Launcher

Every Android smartphone or tablet has a launcher, whether it’s the default OEM launcher or a third-party app you have installed. The launcher lets you configure the user interface exactly the way you like it, with custom wallpapers, icons, widgets, fonts, modes, themes and more. If you’ve used a recent Samsung device, you’re probably familiar with One UI Home without knowing exactly what it is. What is OneUI Home? Here’s everything you need to know about Samsung’s default launcher.

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Samsung has always had its own take on the Android UI. After TouchWiz and Samsung Experience, the company first introduced One UI, based on Android 9 Pie, in 2018 to facilitate one-handed operations on its larger devices. It also brought some cool features like a dark system mode and more, and Samsung kept adding more features over the years. The latest version, One UI 5.0, based on Android 13, is currently in beta.

All Android phones have a launcher, and Samsung’s launcher, which is part of its One UI overlay, is called One UI Home. The launcher allows you to customize various aspects of the phone’s home screen. You can add widgets, change the appearance of app notifications, and adjust the appearance of the app drawer, to name a few.

How to get a single user interface

One UI Home is an OEM launcher available only on Samsung devices running any version of One UI. You will not be able to download or install One UI Home on non-Samsung devices through the Google Play Store.

You can find One UI Home settings by going to Settings > Home screen.

If you are looking for permission settings and other options, go to Settings > Apps > One UI Home.

One UI Home settings allow you to change the home screen. You can set your home screen layout to include an app drawer or give it an iPhone-esque look with all the apps on the home screen. If you have a lot of apps on the home screen or plan to use widgets, you can adjust the home screen grid layout. You can also change the grid layout of app drawer and folders.

Use the Add a media page to the home screen setting to set the media page you will see when you swipe right from the home screen. Google Discover is enabled by default and you can replace it with Samsung Free. You can also disable this feature.

If the app drawer is enabled, you’ll need to swipe up to open it. Instead, you can enable Show apps screen button on home screen to add an app drawer button in the lower right corner of the page for easier access. Other app settings include the ability to lock the home screen layout, so nothing gets moved or deleted by mistake. You can also configure it to directly add all the apps you have installed to the home screens.

You can activate App icon badges to see which apps have pending notifications. Set it to Number to see exactly how many notifications you have, or select Point for a general idea. With One UI Home, you can touch and hold the app icon to see notifications if you don’t want to open the app. The setting is disabled by default. Go to Settings > Home screen > App icon badges and activate App icon notifications to get this feature.

Long press anywhere on the home screen and tap the Widgets button at the bottom of the screen. Choose a widget you want to add from the many options like Bixby Routines, Google Photos, Gmail, Clock, Netflix, Calendar, Contacts, etc. Once you have selected the widget, hold it down and drag it to the home screen. You can resize the widget to fit the home screen. Change the home screen layout if you don’t have enough space.

Press and hold anywhere on the home screen and tap the Wallpaper and style button at the bottom of the page. Press on My wallpapers to change home screen and lock screen wallpapers. You can also use images you have uploaded or photos from your gallery by going to the Gallery option.

You can also set a dynamic lock screen to see a new wallpaper every time you tap the phone. Go to Wallpaper & Style > Lock Screen Wallpaper Services and activate Dynamic lock screen.

You can change the user interface color scheme including apps, notification panel and app icons.

Press and hold anywhere on the lock screen and tap Themes to go to galaxy themes page. You will see many paid and free options. Choose a theme and press To download to install a theme. A theme will completely change the look of the user interface, from wallpaper to app icons.

Other settings and features

Other home screen settings include the ability to swipe down anywhere on the home screen to open the notification panel. This is a valuable feature for one-handed use, so you don’t have to reach for the top of the phone. Finally, you can set whether the user interface should switch to landscape mode when you rotate the phone.

Many Samsung users learn that One UI Home is a system app when they notice it on the phone’s battery usage list. One of the biggest issues with One UI Home is rapid battery drain. Go to Settings > Apps > One UI Home > Battery and select Optimized Where Limit to reduce the app’s battery usage. If you are still facing battery drain problem, your only option is to wait for an update or download a third-party launcher.

When your home screen freezes or is completely unresponsive, force restart the phone by long pressing the power button. If you can, go to Settings > Apps > One UI Home > Storage and press Empty the cache and Erase data. If that doesn’t work, go to Settings > Apps > One UI Home and press Force stop.

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