Galaxy S20 Questions/Issues

[Cahn2126]

Okay, so I recently switched from an iphone 7 to an S20. This is not my first time on Android, but it has been over 4 years. A couple issues/questions have popped up that I did not have while using my iphone 7.

Is there anyway to completely disable the Samsung gallery app? I'm using Google messages and when I want to send a MMS I have to navigate thru 3 screens just to get to my google photos and then find the picture I want to send. Also, I am not able to select multiple pictures at one time, so I have to keep going back and forth thru a few screens. Using the Samsung gallery app allows me to avoid all these extra steps and select multiple pictures within Google messages. However, the gallery app does not even see all of my google photos. It will only see pictures that are locally stored or recently taken/saved since I got the phone.

So is there any way to 1) Just have google photos show up as default and allow me to select multiple photos when I want to send MMS within Google messages or 2) Have the Samsung gallery app just see (not locally store) all of my google photos? I see no way of completely removing Samsung gallery.

When I receive multiple twitter notifications, I see multiple bird symbols in the status bar instead of just one. Also, the number of twitter notifications does not match the badge icon. So if I get 5 twitter notifications, the badge will only show the number 1. However, if I actually go into the twitter app and then back out the badge number corrects itself to the number 5. I have already tried force stop, clearing cache/data and reinstalling the app a few times. What is the deal here?

 

[VidJunky]

As for the messaging issues,

No there is no way to disable the Samsung Gallery. They've blocked it from being disabled.

No there is no way, using Google Messages, to default to Google Photos. You can use the Google Photos app to send the photos and it will allow you to select multiple items at once this way. If you know you are going to send several pics from photos, just open the app and select the ones you want to include then press the share button and select Messages. I actually like the way it shares between the two apps.

No there is no way to get Samsung's Gallery to see your Google Photos. This has been a complaint I've seen several times and so far I've seen no work around or alternative for this issue.

As for Twitter,

All Twitter notification issues are from Twitter. There have been several posts about notification badges and other notification issues with Twitter and they are controlled by the Twitter app and developers. You can use the Contact link on the Twitter app page at the Play Store to send them an email or perhaps they have a feedback link in the app. It doesn't look like they reply to review comments.

 

[blackhawkhot]

PD MDM Package Blocker if it will run on Q.
Runs fine on Pie. Buy at their website for $3.99, it's clean.
Simply check it's box and it's disabled on boot, even in safe mode.
That apk is a horror on my Note 10+, locked it down the first week. Samsung used to have a great gallery apk, wtf?

 

[Cahn2126]

As for the messaging issues,

No there is no way to disable the Samsung Gallery. They've blocked it from being disabled.

No there is no way, using Google Messages, to default to Google Photos. You can use the Google Photos app to send the photos and it will allow you to select multiple items at once this way. If you know you are going to send several pics from photos, just open the app and select the ones you want to include then press the share button and select Messages. I actually like the way it shares between the two apps.

No there is no way to get Samsung's Gallery to see your Google Photos. This has been a complaint I've seen several times and so far I've seen no work around or alternative for this issue.

As for Twitter,

All Twitter notification issues are from Twitter. There have been several posts about notification badges and other notification issues with Twitter and they are controlled by the Twitter app and developers. You can use the Contact link on the Twitter app page at the Play Store to send them an email or perhaps they have a feedback link in the app. It doesn't look like they reply to review comments.

Hi Vid,

First off, I would like to thank you for taking the time to reply to all of my questions. I was afraid I would get these answers, but at least it confirms there's nothing I can do. I did know about going thru the Google Photos app first and then selecting multiple photos, I just forgot to include that in my email. It would be great if the Samsung Gallery could not only see Google photos, but see them without having them locally stored. I did forget to mention that I am not receiving ANY facebook notification despite every notification being active. I'm guess that has to deal with FB directly. Although, the Twitter and FB issues could be a combination of software issues/compatibility on both ends. I knew that by going back to Android I would face trade offs, especially in regards to software. Android just is not as intuitive or efficient as iOS.

 

[VidJunky]

Hi Vid,

First off, I would like to thank you for taking the time to reply to all of my questions. I was afraid I would get these answers, but at least it confirms there's nothing I can do. I did know about going thru the Google Photos app first and then selecting multiple photos, I just forgot to include that in my email. It would be great if the Samsung Gallery could not only see Google photos, but see them without having them locally stored. I did forget to mention that I am not receiving ANY facebook notification despite every notification being active. I'm guess that has to deal with FB directly. Although, the Twitter and FB issues could be a combination of software issues/compatibility on both ends. I knew that by going back to Android I would face trade offs, especially in regards to software. Android just is not as intuitive or efficient as iOS.

Hey it's not a problem.

I haven't seen or heard of any issues with Facebook lately so I'm not sure what might be going on there. The Twitter thing has been popping up since people started updating to Android 10. I guess they keep reducing the number of notifications that appear in their app badges and like you mentioned giving an odd number of notifications in the notification feed. There was a complaint about the chronological order as well but I don't remember the details, sorry. Since you say that you're not getting any FB notifications I wonder if you uninstalled the app and installed it again if that would take care of that? FB seems to always be on top of their app and it could be as simple as something being turned on or off, or a minor bug. Reinstalling the app would probably reset all of the app settings and clear up any bugs. Obviously you wouldn't loose anything as all of your actual FB stuff is stored on their servers and the app is just a viewer and interface. You'll just have to sign-in again.

I have never been an Apple person so I honestly don't know much about it other than discussions I've been in or seen but from what I can gather everything seems to work a little more seamlessly with them because it is a closed system. They control everything. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is all that instinctive, I've seen several complaints of a lack of instinctual design, lol, but since they control everything hardware and software it's maybe easier for them to get some things to work together. Then it comes down to what you're used to. I would be completely lost with an iOS device if I "had to" switch. LOL.

 

[Cahn2126]

Hey it's not a problem.

I haven't seen or heard of any issues with Facebook lately so I'm not sure what might be going on there. The Twitter thing has been popping up since people started updating to Android 10. I guess they keep reducing the number of notifications that appear in their app badges and like you mentioned giving an odd number of notifications in the notification feed. There was a complaint about the chronological order as well but I don't remember the details, sorry. Since you say that you're not getting any FB notifications I wonder if you uninstalled the app and installed it again if that would take care of that? FB seems to always be on top of their app and it could be as simple as something being turned on or off, or a minor bug. Reinstalling the app would probably reset all of the app settings and clear up any bugs. Obviously you wouldn't loose anything as all of your actual FB stuff is stored on their servers and the app is just a viewer and interface. You'll just have to sign-in again.

I have never been an Apple person so I honestly don't know much about it other than discussions I've been in or seen but from what I can gather everything seems to work a little more seamlessly with them because it is a closed system. They control everything. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it is all that instinctive, I've seen several complaints of a lack of instinctual design, lol, but since they control everything hardware and software it's maybe easier for them to get some things to work together. Then it comes down to what you're used to. I would be completely lost with an iOS device if I "had to" switch. LOL.

Yeah, I did try uninstalling and reinstalling both FB and Twitter a handful of times. Also, cleared cache/data a few times over the past 2 weeks that I have owned the phone. Can't get a single notification in facebook. The only one I get is when I reinstall the app and I get a notification about finding friends. None of these things are game breakers, but several minor things start to add up and get annoying. Especially since on my iphone I never ran into any of this. Example, from within iMessage Google photos is right next to their photos app when I want to send MMS and I can choose multiple photos. Another minor difference is that I have to use a separate app (T-Mobile) for my visual voice mail. On iphones, the VMM is built into the phone dialer.

iOS is not perferct. The design is bland and it lacks customization, but it has the fundamentals down. I've always thought that Android tried to run before it could walk.

 

[Cahn2126]

Btw you can't actually uninstall facebook. I can only disable it, and I've done that handful of times. Speaking of which there was an update on my phone last night, and today I started getting facebook notifications. Lol let's see if they stay consistent. Twitter is still janky though.

 

[VidJunky]

Well it sounds promising that at least you're getting something now. On pre-installed apps that cannot be uninstalled, usually you can uninstall the last update, but if that wasn't an option you did the best you could. For not having had an Android for, what did you say, 4 years, you seem to know your way around pretty well. Congrats. It's funny because everything I mention you seem to have tried or tried some variation of, but I have one left.

Check your battery settings and see what level of optimization you're using. You shouldn't have to go to High performance but Medium might be an issue. Settings>Device care>Battery>Power mode.

You might also check Special access. Changing Optimize battery usage settings for either app might have some effect. I can only find this by typing Special in the search bar of the settings page. Once you reach the Special usage page>Optimize battery usage>change "Apps not optimized" to "All", then scroll to your Facebook apps. There will probably be 3 of them, for me 2 are optimized and 1 is not but I also don't use FB, or Twitter for that matter, so notifications aren't an issue for me. You might try turning off optimization for either or both and see what happens.

On Android 9 Pie, I used to have a real issue with Samsung's Battery management where it would put apps to sleep. Since the Android 10 update the simple UI seems to be gone and I'm assuming was replaced by one or the other of the items I mentioned. It's the only other thing I could think of and since you're getting something now you may not want to play with it if it would have any effect.