The S Pen is more powerful than you think and helps you be more productive with your Note 8. With a 0.7mm tip and 4096 pressure points, S Pen helps you take notes or annotate images precisely with your Note 8. In the video below, I walk you through some of the top S Pen features for your Note 8.
Screen off memo
To take a quick note when you display is off, just pop out your S Pen and start writing immediately on the screen. There is no need to unlock your phone.
It has also got few basic options such as selecting a pen thickness and pinning the note to Always on Display (AOD). Pinning the note to AOD will display the notes for 10 minutes after which it will collapse into an icon in your AOD.
You can also add multiple pages so you can capture different notes per page. Samsung allows you to add up to 100 pages.
Air command
Air command allows you to quickly access S Pen shortcuts whenever you remove your S Pen from your Note 8. The floating icon, which appears as soon as you pop out your S Pen, provides access to those S Pen shortcuts. You can add up to 10 shortcuts, including your installed apps.
To manage the shortcuts, go to:
Settings -> Advanced Features -> S Pen -> Air command
Samsung Notes
Here is another way to manage and take notes with your S Pen.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Create notes.
With the S Pen Create note shortcut, you can quickly bring up the Samsung Notes popup and start taking notes.
If you want to continue using your phone but want to keep the notes pop up on screen, you can do so by minimizing the popup into a floating icon that you can move around anywhere on your screen. To get back to the notes, just tap on the icon again.
Smart select
With the smart select S Pen shortcut, you can select a particular section of your screen, take a screenshot, annotate if needed and share them on social media or with your friends.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Smart select.
Smart select gives you the option to select the section based on shapes - Rectangle, Oval and Lasso.
As an added bonus, you can also quickly record GIFs using the smart select shortcut!
Screen write
Screen write shortcut allows you to take a screenshot and annotate it before saving. It is very handy if you want to mark up certain sections with shapes and text. Once saved, you can share the screenshot to your friends or social media.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command and tap on Screen write.
Glance
With the glance shortcut, you can quickly minimize the current app into a thumbnail so that it is available to glance later. You can hover your S Pen over the thumbnail to expand it.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Glance.
It is useful in the instances where you want to compare certain items in two different apps. Yes, you could launch the multi-window mode but that would take up the screen real estate whereas, with the glance, it wouldn't.
Live message
This is one of my favorite S Pen features. This allows you to create GIFs of your own by animating the content you write or draw on pictures. You can select a background, either a solid color or a picture, select the pen type from ink, glow & sparkle, pick a pen color and start writing or drawing on the background.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Live message.
Once you are done, you can then save this as a GIF and share it with your friends or social media.
Magnify
With the magnify shortcut, you can magnify areas of the screen as you hover your S Pen over those areas. You can magnify up to 300% so it comes in handy if you want to take a closer look at the high-quality images for example.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Magnify.
Translate
With the translate shortcut, you can translate words or sentences by just hovering your S Pen over those words or sentences. Using the translate settings bar at the top, you can switch between the modes - Word or Sentence - by tapping on the far left icon.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Translate.
When using the word mode, you can translate 36 languages into 71 languages, and when using the sentence mode, you can translate 39 languages into 71 languages. Using the settings bar at the top, you can select your source and target languages.
Direct pen input
Instead of typing with your keyboard, you can use your S Pen to write in the text fields in the apps. For example, if you hover your S Pen over the browser's address bar, you will get a small icon to enable the direct pen input. Tap on that icon to start writing with your S Pen.
Once you have completed writing, it will be converted to normal text. By tapping the Go button, it will perform the intended action, for example, navigating to that page in the case of the browser app.
Selecting text
With the help of the S Pen button, you can easily select text in your screen or app. Just press and hold the S Pen button and then swipe to select your desired text. You will then get the options to copy, share or even look up the text in the dictionary. The options here could vary between apps as well.
Air view
Most of the Samsung apps, like the Samsung Notes, Messages, Email etc., support air view gestures where you can use your S Pen to perform some actions.
When editing photos in the Samsung Gallery app, you can quickly select multiple photos by just dragging your S Pen across all photos. Very handy if you want to bulk edit or copy/move pictures. This multiple selection gesture work even in other Samsung apps like Samsung Notes.
To scroll down or up, you can hover your S Pen to the bottom or top of the page respectively and it will start scrolling down or up automatically. This also works in most of the Samsung apps.
To quickly get a preview of an item, like a photo or notes, you can just hover your S Pen over the item and it will give you a bigger thumbnail with few options like edit, delete and share straight away.
Draw on pictures
S Pen is a great tool for doodling or coloring or even sketching if you are into it. With its 0.7mm tip with 4096 pressure points and tilt sensitivity support, you can sketch or draw on pictures quite precisely.
To draw on a picture, just select your picture and tap on edit and then select the draw option. You can choose your desired pen type, thickness, and color to begin with.
You can download many coloring apps from the Play Store as well, but I would highly recommend Samsung's Penup app that you can download from the Galaxy Apps store.
For sketching, you got few options as well like the Sketchbook for Galaxy and Samsung Notes apps, both which you can download from the Galaxy Apps store.
What's your favorite S Pen feature? Let us know in the discussion below!
If you are interested in more tips and tricks videos, make sure you are also subscribed to my YouTube channel.
Screen off memo
To take a quick note when you display is off, just pop out your S Pen and start writing immediately on the screen. There is no need to unlock your phone.
It has also got few basic options such as selecting a pen thickness and pinning the note to Always on Display (AOD). Pinning the note to AOD will display the notes for 10 minutes after which it will collapse into an icon in your AOD.
You can also add multiple pages so you can capture different notes per page. Samsung allows you to add up to 100 pages.
Air command
Air command allows you to quickly access S Pen shortcuts whenever you remove your S Pen from your Note 8. The floating icon, which appears as soon as you pop out your S Pen, provides access to those S Pen shortcuts. You can add up to 10 shortcuts, including your installed apps.
To manage the shortcuts, go to:
Settings -> Advanced Features -> S Pen -> Air command
Samsung Notes
Here is another way to manage and take notes with your S Pen.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Create notes.
With the S Pen Create note shortcut, you can quickly bring up the Samsung Notes popup and start taking notes.
If you want to continue using your phone but want to keep the notes pop up on screen, you can do so by minimizing the popup into a floating icon that you can move around anywhere on your screen. To get back to the notes, just tap on the icon again.
Smart select
With the smart select S Pen shortcut, you can select a particular section of your screen, take a screenshot, annotate if needed and share them on social media or with your friends.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Smart select.
Smart select gives you the option to select the section based on shapes - Rectangle, Oval and Lasso.
As an added bonus, you can also quickly record GIFs using the smart select shortcut!
Screen write
Screen write shortcut allows you to take a screenshot and annotate it before saving. It is very handy if you want to mark up certain sections with shapes and text. Once saved, you can share the screenshot to your friends or social media.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command and tap on Screen write.
Glance
With the glance shortcut, you can quickly minimize the current app into a thumbnail so that it is available to glance later. You can hover your S Pen over the thumbnail to expand it.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Glance.
It is useful in the instances where you want to compare certain items in two different apps. Yes, you could launch the multi-window mode but that would take up the screen real estate whereas, with the glance, it wouldn't.
Live message
This is one of my favorite S Pen features. This allows you to create GIFs of your own by animating the content you write or draw on pictures. You can select a background, either a solid color or a picture, select the pen type from ink, glow & sparkle, pick a pen color and start writing or drawing on the background.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Live message.
Once you are done, you can then save this as a GIF and share it with your friends or social media.
Magnify
With the magnify shortcut, you can magnify areas of the screen as you hover your S Pen over those areas. You can magnify up to 300% so it comes in handy if you want to take a closer look at the high-quality images for example.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Magnify.
Translate
With the translate shortcut, you can translate words or sentences by just hovering your S Pen over those words or sentences. Using the translate settings bar at the top, you can switch between the modes - Word or Sentence - by tapping on the far left icon.
To launch this shortcut, launch air command, and tap on Translate.
When using the word mode, you can translate 36 languages into 71 languages, and when using the sentence mode, you can translate 39 languages into 71 languages. Using the settings bar at the top, you can select your source and target languages.
Direct pen input
Instead of typing with your keyboard, you can use your S Pen to write in the text fields in the apps. For example, if you hover your S Pen over the browser's address bar, you will get a small icon to enable the direct pen input. Tap on that icon to start writing with your S Pen.
Once you have completed writing, it will be converted to normal text. By tapping the Go button, it will perform the intended action, for example, navigating to that page in the case of the browser app.
Selecting text
With the help of the S Pen button, you can easily select text in your screen or app. Just press and hold the S Pen button and then swipe to select your desired text. You will then get the options to copy, share or even look up the text in the dictionary. The options here could vary between apps as well.
Air view
Most of the Samsung apps, like the Samsung Notes, Messages, Email etc., support air view gestures where you can use your S Pen to perform some actions.
When editing photos in the Samsung Gallery app, you can quickly select multiple photos by just dragging your S Pen across all photos. Very handy if you want to bulk edit or copy/move pictures. This multiple selection gesture work even in other Samsung apps like Samsung Notes.
To scroll down or up, you can hover your S Pen to the bottom or top of the page respectively and it will start scrolling down or up automatically. This also works in most of the Samsung apps.
To quickly get a preview of an item, like a photo or notes, you can just hover your S Pen over the item and it will give you a bigger thumbnail with few options like edit, delete and share straight away.
Draw on pictures
S Pen is a great tool for doodling or coloring or even sketching if you are into it. With its 0.7mm tip with 4096 pressure points and tilt sensitivity support, you can sketch or draw on pictures quite precisely.
To draw on a picture, just select your picture and tap on edit and then select the draw option. You can choose your desired pen type, thickness, and color to begin with.
You can download many coloring apps from the Play Store as well, but I would highly recommend Samsung's Penup app that you can download from the Galaxy Apps store.
For sketching, you got few options as well like the Sketchbook for Galaxy and Samsung Notes apps, both which you can download from the Galaxy Apps store.
What's your favorite S Pen feature? Let us know in the discussion below!
If you are interested in more tips and tricks videos, make sure you are also subscribed to my YouTube channel.
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