Newcomer to Galaxy/Android... and I'm frustrated!

[Pixel Hunter]

Hello. New to Android. Got a Galaxy S24+ a couple weeks ago after using iPhones since the dawn of time. Finally got sick of being forced to do everything the Apple Way, and paying the Apple Tax. Anyway, the S24 hasn't been the silver bullet I was hoping for. I'm guessing most of these frustrations are just due to me not knowing the ins and outs of Android yet, or that I haven't set things up correctly. I'm used to things "just working", even if it wasn't necessarily working the way I would have preferred.

Anyway, here's the things frustrating me most right now:

1. Voicemail to text (Visual Voicemail Transcriptions) - This "just worked" on my iPhone. I realize the built-in Visual Voicemail app from Samsung doesn't support transcription. So I downloaded the AT&T Visual Voicemail app. Transcription worked once or twice when I first installed it, and hasn't worked since! AT&T technical support has been useless. They reset my voicemail multiple times and made sure the phone was updated fully. Beyond that, nothing to get transcriptions working.

2. Notifications - I don't even know where to start here.

2a. I have notification pop up style set to brief and lock screen notifications set to on. When locked, some notifications don't pop up at all on the AOD. And the ones that do, disappear after something like 3-5 seconds and are gone before I can glance at the phone. Not sure how to get the ones not showing up to show up (I have pop-up and lock screen notifications turned on for all apps) or how to lengthen the display duration (Settings > Accessibility > Advanced > Time to take action doesn't affect the pop-ups on the AOD.) Nest is a good example of an app that refuses to show pop-ups.

2b. Some apps have notification red dots on the app icon. And when there is a dot, I can open the app and check for anything new. Closing the app I find the dot is still there. The only way to get rid of the dot is to open the notifications panel and find the notification from that app and clear it. Other apps work perfectly fine. When I open the app and check the new thing/message/whatever and close the app, the dot is gone.

2c. Is there any way to NOT have notifications show up on the notifications panel? Maybe it's fine, but 2b makes me kind of hate this panel.

3. Keyboard woes - Sometimes when typing in an email, text, Teams, or whatever, the keyboard is useless. It will tttttttype mulllllltiple letters. Or it will auto-correct a correct word into something I don't want. Or it will just fail to auto-correct anything at all and I wind up with a sentence of gibberish. Other times, it works perfectly fine. And I can find no rhyme or reason as to which personality it's going to have that time I'm using it.

4. Google Wallet - I chose to use this over the Samsung wallet. But both seem to pale to the Apple Wallet functionality and support. It seems like only half the apps/membership cards I had in my Apple Wallet work in Google Wallet. And oddly enough, it kept asking me to tap a little link above the credit card to unlock the wallet every time until now, but I've turned off facial unlock, so maybe that was causing that issue.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. I wasn't sure if a single post with all my questions was preferable to several posts in quick succession.

 

[bgbagz]

In response to question 2.

 

[notforhire]

with Android, you direct a lot of how your phone behaves. it'll take a little time to arrange the furniture just the way you like it. as for keyboards, you can use the default Samsung board, try Gboard from Google, or SwiftKey from MSFT. hang in there.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

1) If it's a carrier purchased phone, VVM should work with the native app. AT&T is the worst of the three players not just in service but which devices it allows on its network and butchering Android to their liking which means using their crappy VM app as you've discovered. Happend on LGs, Pixels to a lesser extent and I doubt Samsung would be any different.

That said, does the native app do anything or just no transcription?
Open the native app, Three Dots upper right corner, Settings, (I have dual SIM, you may need to click your number), Voicemail transcription and translation. Make sure it says on and language set accordingly.


2) Long press the notification you don't want. Turn off Notifications.
Alternatively, Long press same as above but select settings. You'll see Notification Categories. Click that and you can find tune it to only show ones you want to see.

(I messed up the order and don't feel like retyping)

c) Same steps as Alternatively above, but don't click Notification Categories. Under Notification Type make sure Lock Screen says Allowed. Make sure Lock Screen Notifications says Show Content.

b) it's a quirk. Notifications really should disappear after you read them but I can only assume they don't do that for the old farts that use the notification pane as their hub for what to check.

a) native edge lighting/AOD sucks. Take a look at Notification Light for Samsung by Developer Jawomo. Infinite possibilities for the time, nothification lighting and safe battery while doing so.

3) Samsung Keyboard is broken AF. Samsung doesn't seem to give a squirrels left nut. The autocorrect breaks everything and gets it wrong. SwiftKey by Microsoft or Gboard by Google.

4) There are no member cards that aren't compatible. You can either type the number or scan the barcode. If it's not recognized it might not have the company logo but will store the barcode/ID.
Face unlock could cause that but doubt it. I hate Google Wallet personally. Samsungs despite having more options, which could be seen as bloat by some works reliably and is arguably more secure as it's hardened/embedded with KNOX. Googles app I'm sure is secure enough but who knows**.

**You'll find many, myself included, have a growing distain for Google and avoid Google apps and hardware in favor of reputable developers or open-source alternatives.

 

[Drongo]

Hello. New to Android. Got a Galaxy S24+ a couple weeks ago after using iPhones since the dawn of time. Finally got sick of being forced to do everything the Apple Way, and paying the Apple Tax. Anyway, the S24 hasn't been the silver bullet I was hoping for. I'm guessing most of these frustrations are just due to me not knowing the ins and outs of Android yet, or that I haven't set things up correctly. I'm used to things "just working", even if it wasn't necessarily working the way I would have preferred.

Anyway, here's the things frustrating me most right now:

1. Voicemail to text (Visual Voicemail Transcriptions) - This "just worked" on my iPhone. I realize the built-in Visual Voicemail app from Samsung doesn't support transcription. So I downloaded the AT&T Visual Voicemail app. Transcription worked once or twice when I first installed it, and hasn't worked since! AT&T technical support has been useless. They reset my voicemail multiple times and made sure the phone was updated fully. Beyond that, nothing to get transcriptions working.

2. Notifications - I don't even know where to start here.

2a. I have notification pop up style set to brief and lock screen notifications set to on. When locked, some notifications don't pop up at all on the AOD. And the ones that do, disappear after something like 3-5 seconds and are gone before I can glance at the phone. Not sure how to get the ones not showing up to show up (I have pop-up and lock screen notifications turned on for all apps) or how to lengthen the display duration (Settings > Accessibility > Advanced > Time to take action doesn't affect the pop-ups on the AOD.) Nest is a good example of an app that refuses to show pop-ups.

2b. Some apps have notification red dots on the app icon. And when there is a dot, I can open the app and check for anything new. Closing the app I find the dot is still there. The only way to get rid of the dot is to open the notifications panel and find the notification from that app and clear it. Other apps work perfectly fine. When I open the app and check the new thing/message/whatever and close the app, the dot is gone.

2c. Is there any way to NOT have notifications show up on the notifications panel? Maybe it's fine, but 2b makes me kind of hate this panel.

3. Keyboard woes - Sometimes when typing in an email, text, Teams, or whatever, the keyboard is useless. It will tttttttype mulllllltiple letters. Or it will auto-correct a correct word into something I don't want. Or it will just fail to auto-correct anything at all and I wind up with a sentence of gibberish. Other times, it works perfectly fine. And I can find no rhyme or reason as to which personality it's going to have that time I'm using it.

4. Google Wallet - I chose to use this over the Samsung wallet. But both seem to pale to the Apple Wallet functionality and support. It seems like only half the apps/membership cards I had in my Apple Wallet work in Google Wallet. And oddly enough, it kept asking me to tap a little link above the credit card to unlock the wallet every time until now, but I've turned off facial unlock, so maybe that was causing that issue.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. I wasn't sure if a single post with all my questions was preferable to several posts in quick succession.

I had problems when I bought a Samsung Galaxy S24+ in Hong Kong.
I had serious frustrating issues with Samsung Keyboard, Samsung Clock and Samsung messages and a few others. I installed Gboard, Google Clock, Google Wallet and a few others from Google Play Store.
Lots of Bloatware Apps in this phone and many in Cantonese characters. I uninstalled updates on 25 Apps and they were removed from All Apps and are still in Galaxy Store. I disabled Auto updates.. There are 25 Bloatware Apps in Samsung Store that need updating.
I have Firefox browser installed and also installed "Open Camera". Open Camera has a lot of options and I installed because it has the option to time stamp photo's. Date and time in the 24 hour format with Hours, Minutes, Seconds.
Here is a link that might sort out some of your problems.
https://www.androidpolice.com/samsung-galaxy-s24-settings-change-immediately/
If you need anymore information please don't hesitate to let me know.

 

[Pixel Hunter]

Thank you for the replies. I'm feeling like most of my issues are that I need to "set up" the phone to meet my needs. Until I do so, it's going to do things I don't expect or don't want. I'm not used to this freedom on a smartphone. This is more like setting up my PC to my liking.

with Android, you direct a lot of how your phone behaves. it'll take a little time to arrange the furniture just the way you like it. as for keyboards, you can use the default Samsung board, try Gboard from Google, or SwiftKey from MSFT. hang in there.

I've installed Gboard and I'll give that a try. I can always check out SwitfKey as well. It's nice being able to have multiple options and switch back and forth between them.

1) If it's a carrier purchased phone, VVM should work with the native app. AT&T is the worst of the three players not just in service but which devices it allows on its network and butchering Android to their liking which means using their crappy VM app as you've discovered. Happend on LGs, Pixels to a lesser extent and I doubt Samsung would be any different.

That said, does the native app do anything or just no transcription?
Open the native app, Three Dots upper right corner, Settings, (I have dual SIM, you may need to click your number), Voicemail transcription and translation. Make sure it says on and language set accordingly.


2) Long press the notification you don't want. Turn off Notifications.
Alternatively, Long press same as above but select settings. You'll see Notification Categories. Click that and you can find tune it to only show ones you want to see.

(I messed up the order and don't feel like retyping)

c) Same steps as Alternatively above, but don't click Notification Categories. Under Notification Type make sure Lock Screen says Allowed. Make sure Lock Screen Notifications says Show Content.

b) it's a quirk. Notifications really should disappear after you read them but I can only assume they don't do that for the old farts that use the notification pane as their hub for what to check.

a) native edge lighting/AOD sucks. Take a look at Notification Light for Samsung by Developer Jawomo. Infinite possibilities for the time, nothification lighting and safe battery while doing so.

3) Samsung Keyboard is broken AF. Samsung doesn't seem to give a squirrels left nut. The autocorrect breaks everything and gets it wrong. SwiftKey by Microsoft or Gboard by Google.

4) There are no member cards that aren't compatible. You can either type the number or scan the barcode. If it's not recognized it might not have the company logo but will store the barcode/ID.
Face unlock could cause that but doubt it. I hate Google Wallet personally. Samsungs despite having more options, which could be seen as bloat by some works reliably and is arguably more secure as it's hardened/embedded with KNOX. Googles app I'm sure is secure enough but who knows**.

**You'll find many, myself included, have a growing distain for Google and avoid Google apps and hardware in favor of reputable developers or open-source alternatives.

1. Yeah, it's from AT&T. The native app (the one you can access from the phone keypad page) shows the voicemails, and I can select each and listen to them, delete them, etc. But there is no transcription. When I tap the 3-dots and go to Settings, there is no option for transcription. Just greeting, notifications, password, mailbox limit, and version.

The AT&T Visual Voicemail app I downloaded from the Play Store also lists the voicemails where I can listen, delete, ect. But they all say "Transcript not available" under the phone number. And when I go to that 3-dot menu, then Settings, Transcription is indeed turned on.

2a. I looked into downloading Notification Light by Jawomo. However, I see two! "Notification light for Samsung" and "Notification light - aodNotify". The first says it doesn't support S24 or Android 14, but some reviews say they've put it on that phone. The second seems to be in beta. I didn't want to download either and play with them until I asked about it.

2b. Yeah... I resemble that comment about "old farts"! So... I'm coming into the Android ecosystem after being brainwashed by Apple for years. Instead of me trying to make the S24 mimic the Apple... how should I expect notifications to work. It seems like the Notification Panel is a main hub which I have been trying to ignore. Maybe I shouldn't be?

2c. If I turn off notifications so they don't appear in the Notification Panel, they won't notify me anywhere, correct? Not exactly what I wanted. But as I said in 2b, maybe I just need to learn to embrace the Notification Panel instead of trying to ignore it?

3. I've heard that elsewhere. I've also seen Youtubers say the Samsung KB is superior. Whatever. I've downloaded Gboard and I'll give that a try. I like that there are options!

4. What I meant to say was a lot of things I could add to my Apple Wallet "automatically" don't work with Google Wallet. For example, the Cinemark app would allow me to view a ticket I purchased and add it to the wallet directly. Similarly with other apps. I haven't tried events tickets yet, since I haven't had any since getting the S24. I'm worried I'll run into the same issue.

I'm torn whether I should use Google or Samsung Wallet. My wife was having a bunch of problems with Samsung Wallet on her Z-Fold.

I had problems when I bought a Samsung Galaxy S24+ in Hong Kong.
I had serious frustrating issues with Samsung Keyboard, Samsung Clock and Samsung messages and a few others. I installed Gboard, Google Clock and a few others from Google Play Store.
Lots of Bloatware Apps in this phone and many in Cantonese characters. I uninstalled updates on 25 Apps and they were removed from All Apps and are still in Galaxy Store. I disabled Auto updates.. There are 25 Bloatware Apps in Samsung Store that need updating.
I have Firefox browser installed and also installed "Open Camera". Open Camera has a lot of options and I installed because it has the option to time stamp photo's. Date and time in the 24 hour format with Hours, Minutes, Seconds.
Here is a link that might sort out some of your problems.
https://www.androidpolice.com/samsung-galaxy-s24-settings-change-immediately/
If you need anymore information please don't hesitate to let me know.

I noticed a lot of apps. I don't know which ones I should be keeping and which ones I should delete or disable. Because I'm not familiar with Android yet, I don't know what's best and what's bloat. Especially when confronted with multiple choices for the same function, such as Wallet, Messenger, Voicemail, Calendar, etc.

 

[notforhire]

the apps you don't use are bloat lol. as to Samsung vs Google Wallet, I use Google Wallet since I have 3 cards that support Google that do not support Samsung.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

@Pixel Hunter

1) That's not the VVM app. It's independent from the phone. AT&T may have hidden it.

Download https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=rk.android.app.shortcutmaker.

Once open, select apps and find visual voicemail and make a home screen shortcut.

Below is what the app looks like when you click a VM, it will have transcribed text below it along with a Play button to listen and speaker button for speakerphone.

2a) AodNotify is the old name/app. Use the Samsung one. It works on most Samsung phones

2b) it's up to you. I just check what it says is there and click Clear at the bottom. If you turn off all notifications you won't have a dot though. Catch22. Once/if you stick with Android and get more comfortable you can play with Tasker. It can automate the removal. IMO it is very powerful but not intuitive at all. Chances are someone has a script made that can automate the removal for you that you can simply import.

2c) whoops combined b and c. Correct. No notification, no dot and by extension no way of knowing if something came in.

3) Fangirlz. There is very little Samsung Keyboard does better. I've had all ultra Samsung phones from the S10 5G to the S23 Ultra, so I'm not a Samsung hater, I obviously like Samsung but I'm not going to BS that everything Samsung is the best.

4) Tickets and such usually will show an "Import to Google Wallet". Occasionally it will have just "Import to Wallet" and then the phone asks which one. Samsungs implementation is more manual but again IMO more secure. Try both. While the phone makes you have a default set, it doesn't block you from using both.


And as you may notice across the Internet, the community no longer understands the difference between features they don't use and bloat. Same goes for "hacking" vs tweaking.

Bloat are apps you cannot remove that aren't part of the system. For example, Phones use to come with Facebook. Office, etc.. and you couldn't remove it. That is bloat.

Everything you do on Android is tweaking. There is no hacking. Any hacks on Android are what developers perform to bypass or use an exploit to allow a tweak or something not designed to work, work. So some devs might hack to make it work, us end users aren't hacking anything.

Just a forewarning about the blurred definitions that have taken over in the past couple years.

 

[Pixel Hunter]

@SyCoREAPER, yes... that's the VVM app I was referring to. I can access it via the icon in the keypad in the phone app, or via the green VVM app icon. And I'm not seeing any transcriptions for the voicemails in this app.

​

 

[SyCoREAPER]

And transcription is enabled in VVM settings?

Last thing you could try is turn off wifi, clear VVM app data and run through the setup of it again. Go into settings make sure transcribe is on. Try leaving yourself a longer message just for S&Giggles, like 30-45 seconds of continues talking, wait 5 minutes and see if anything happens. If still nothing, it seems it is, my guess is ATT is blocking it.

 

[leerandall]

If AT&T is anything like Verizon, the basic VVM such as you and I have is free, but you have to pay extra for VVM transcriptions.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

If AT&T is anything like Verizon, the basic VVM such as you and I have is free, but you have to pay extra for VVM transcriptions.

Seriously? That means they are effectively blocking a system app at the firmware level with their customizations to NOT be able to transcribe. Do 3rd party ones work? Back in the day maybe transcribing was happening server side but with phones today being much more advanced, especially AI stuff from Samsung it can do it on device, so long as it's not blocked as assumed above.

That's some Grade-A BS.

 

[notforhire]

Seriously? That means they are effectively blocking a system app at the firmware level with their customizations to NOT be able to transcribe. Do 3rd party ones work? Back in the day maybe transcribing was happening server side but with phones today being much more advanced, especially AI stuff from Samsung it can do it on device, so long as it's not blocked as assumed above.

That's some Grade-A BS.

That's AT&T. In all my years on their service, I've never had the ability to have voicemail transcriptions. I did have transcriptions for the brief time I was with TMO. No idea with Verizon.

 

[leerandall]

Seriously? That means they are effectively blocking a system app at the firmware level with their customizations to NOT be able to transcribe. Do 3rd party ones work? Back in the day maybe transcribing was happening server side but with phones today being much more advanced, especially AI stuff from Samsung it can do it on device, so long as it's not blocked as assumed above.

That's some Grade-A BS.

Seriously.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Seriously.

View attachment 367090

That's their app though, not the Samsung one. Many phones don't have their own VVM app but that they block it on a device capable of transcribing itself is deplorable.

IIIRC U1 models dont have the Samsung VVM app but that was a few models back. If anyone reading this who's on ATT with a U1 model could chime in if Rheirs work would be helpful.

 

[notforhire]

That's their app though, not the Samsung one. Many phones don't have their own VVM app but that they block it on a device capable of transcribing itself is deplorable.

IIIRC U1 models dont have the Samsung VVM app but that was a few models back. If anyone reading this who's on ATT with a U1 model could chime in if Rheirs work would be helpful.

I'm U1 on AT&T. no dice.

 

[leerandall]

No, it's the Samsung app, modified by Verizon. If I go to the Galaxy Store and search for Visual Voicemail by Samsung, it's there but it says it's already installed. If I click on Open from the Store, it opens the app from which my screenshot above came, branded with Verizon's logo. And it looks exactly like the original poster's screenshots.

 

[SyCoREAPER]

Wow, that is beyond scummy.

OP, this is more a carrier fault (I guess Samsung to a degree for allowing it) but definitely not a good first impression of Android comparatively despite it not being an Android issue.

The free way around it is to forward to voicemail from Google Voice. Install Google Voice, get a free number.

On your Samsung Dialer type:

*61*InsertGoogleVoice#Here
Hit Dial, it will configure Unanswered calls to go to Google Voices Voicemail.

Same for Unreachable
*62*InsertGoogleVoice#Here
Hit Dial

Lastly for Busy
*67*InsertGoogleVoice#Here
Hit Dial

Now all your voicemails will go to Google Voice and you don't have to pay the BS VVM fee that should be free. Not only is it nickle and diming but unethical since they obviously struck a deal to allow iPhones/Apple to use native Transcribe. Just goes to show the lengths Apple goes, not to say Google is squeaky clean but that kind of business deal requires morally bankrupt individuals to think nobody will notice.

 

[Pixel Hunter]

Haven't had a chance to respond in a few days. Well... the first good news is I'm beyond the period where I could have exchanged the S24+ and gone back to Apple. So I'm in it for the long haul. At least the next three years!

More good news is as I'm slowing figuring things out, I'm less frustrated with it and less likely to chuck it at a wall at a high rate of velocity!

Of my original issues:

Voicemail transcriptions. Wiping the app data didn't seem to help. It's so confusing compared to the iPhone where there are different VVM apps (the Samsung one included on the phone which was apparently tweaked by the carrier), the carrier-specific app from the Play Store, etc. So it seems like ATT is at fault for whatever reason. I'm probably to the point where it's not worth the bother trying to figure out why it doesn't work. And I'll forever wonder why such a basic feature on the iPhone is such a convoluted mess on Android.

Notifications: I think most of my woes were not having them configured correctly. There is such granular control, that by default it's kind of crap, but if you spend the time fidgeting with it you can get it to work better. I guess this is one area where the "Apple Way" just works well... if you're used to that. But the Android settings options are vast and let you change a lot.

I still have some notifications that make a noise but don't do anything else, such as a pop-up. Acuweather is the biggest culprit for this.

I also am still wondering if there's a way to prevent notifications from appearing in the Notification Panel without turning them completely off.

The rest: The Gboard keyboard has been working pretty well for me. I haven't had nearly as many issues since I changed. There have been a couple wtf moments though.

The apps I had on the iPhone that aren't available on Android and the Google Wallet issues I was having haven't bothered me as much now that I've cooled down a bit.

I'll probably need to start searching other posts or creating some others for app suggestions and then the "fun" stuff of getting things customized in a way that is both cool and functional for me...

 

[Laura Knotek]

I still have some notifications that make a noise but don't do anything else, such as a pop-up. Acuweather is the biggest culprit for this.

I also am still wondering if there's a way to prevent notifications from appearing in the Notification Panel without turning them completely off.

The way to manage those notifications is to go into settings, then apps, and select a particular app to choose how you want to get a notification for that app.

For example, I have sound, pop-up, badge, and lock screen notification for my calendar app.