Samsung Universe, How in are you?

[VidJunky]

Using Google Messages now for RCS.

Google assistant over Bixby.

Chrome over the Samsung browser.

Find my Mobile over Find my Device.

Samsung Pay over Google Pay.

Samsung Email over Gmail.

Android Central over Samsung Members.

Play Store over Galaxy Store.

Photos over Samsung Gallery.

 

[dew066]

Samsung Pay because it also works on my Galaxy watch. I use Samsung calendar, contacts, calculator, dialer and messages. I can't find a reason not to use them, I love the scheduled message feature in messages.
I use Google Photos for syncing pictures and videos.
I use Samsung Internet because I like the swipe gestures to quickly move between tabs and the add blocking.
I am currently using the Samsung keyboard but I was using BlackBerry and Google ones for a while.

 

[Morty2264]

Interesting thread.

Eh, I say I'm half and half. I've stopped using Gmail (well, I still use it occasionally, but I actually prefer Samsung's email app); I use Samsung Messages; Samsung Clock; and Samsung's Calendar and Gallery.

I still use Google Chrome though, as I'm not really a fan of Samsung's internet app. I've always used Google Play Music so I haven't looked elsewhere for an app that does similar - I suppose that counts.

Hmm... Okay, maybe I'm 60-40. Or 70-30. But I don't use Samsung Pay, so I guess I falsely assumed I didn't have much stake in the Samsung world.

But I believe with any good manufacturer, you can adapt to their skin and apps and not feel like you're missing out on something. It was the same with my Pixel (when I was using pure Android, or close to it) and Huawei's Honor OS.

 

[VidJunky]

I'm assuming that there's something in the Samsung device that maybe other MFGrs don't have that allows it to work at most places, even ones that don't have NFC, which is why it is so popular and accepted. I've seen a lot of complaints about the Samsung keyboard. It sounds like it just isn't as customizable as others. Morty2264 you mentioned the Samsung Clock. I had to give that up after the update to Android 10. It was super tiny after the update, not that it was giant before, but when it got even smaller I had to move on. B. Diddy turned me on to Digi clock. It's super customizable which is both good and bad for me. Good because I can make it the size I want and the hidden app launch buttons are nice. Bad because I don't have favorites and there are just Sooo many options it was hard for me to find options that I really liked. I did but it wasn't easy. As for Play Music, it's funny, way back when I wanted the Chocolate (don't remember the MFG) because it was a music player phone. By the time my new ever 2 came up it was an old model but I found one with stereo speakers and put music on every device for several years. Now I can't remember the last time I had music on a phone. Can't remember the last time I played music on my phone that didn't have a video or come from YouTube. I haven't used many of the Play apps other Play Games and I don't really use it, I just let other apps use it. I'm using Samsung's Game Launcher. It's pretty cool. It auto detects games when they are downloaded and adds them to the list without having to add them yourself. Before I started using it I'd download something and then forget about it until I was going though my app drawer and stumble across it again. LOL

 

[notforhire]

Samsung Pay is superior because of the MST technology. I use it all the time. I've had friends that use Apple Pay marvel at how I can use my phone while they have to whip out their cards.

 

[Adam Frix]

There's a current thread over in the S8 forum about a guy who dinged his screen and now he can't unlock the phone with his swipe pattern. Samsung's Find My Mobile can unlock it remotely--I have that turned on in addition to Google's Find My Device. The Samsung thing can do so much more than the Google thing does.

And all it takes is a Samsung account. Well worth it.

 

[Morty2264]

There's a current thread over in the S8 forum about a guy who dinged his screen and now he can't unlock the phone with his swipe pattern. Samsung's Find My Mobile can unlock it remotely--I have that turned on in addition to Google's Find My Device. The Samsung thing can do so much more than the Google thing does.

And all it takes is a Samsung account. Well worth it.

Very good point... Well worth it, indeed.

 

[VidJunky]

There's a current thread over in the S8 forum about a guy who dinged his screen and now he can't unlock the phone with his swipe pattern. Samsung's Find My Mobile can unlock it remotely--I have that turned on in addition to Google's Find My Device. The Samsung thing can do so much more than the Google thing does.

And all it takes is a Samsung account. Well worth it.

Back in the day, Froyo Gingerbread maybe, I remember seeing a lot of posts about losing and being locked out of devices. At that time you had to turn on Google's Find my Device somewhere in the settings for it to work. Inevitably the user wouldn't have known to turn it on. I feel kind of the same way with Samsung's Find my Mobile now. You have to turn on the unlock feature, and go through all of the agreement stuff, and if you don't unlocking isn't even an option. Oh it will find your device without added permissions but at that point it's no better than Google's offering. I also liked the Forgot Password option that was out at that time. Being able to enter your Gmail account and password was a nice option. These days if you forget your password or pattern your only option is factory reset, which then requires your Gmail account and password but you've lost all of your stuff... SMH. I wish Google and Samsung would promote features and tell people right out of the box to turn some of these on or even make it part of the set-up process. Hey, turn on Google Backup for those once in a lifetime pics and videos you're about to take or they could be lost forever. While you're at it turn on all of the features of Find My Mobile, sure would be a shame if you lost your device or needed to unlock it because the screen is damaged or you forgot your pattern. This place would be a ghost town if they did.

On a side note, there was a time I heard about a way to cast and use your device from a PC. Can't remember what you had to turn on for it to work but I played around with it. Little did I know that months later I would break my screen and having that option enabled allowed me to get things from the phone and still use it until my replacement arrived. That was dumb luck but I see that a lot around here too, and you can't just fumble around looking for it if your screen doesn't work.

 

[Adam Frix]

well, to be honest, nothing should exist ONLY on the phone--especially nowadays, with all the backup options for various things. Switching phones is very easy nowadays; even if you break one completely, getting up and running with another one is fairly quick and painless, complete with everything you need.

If you found yourself with a broken screen and needed to cast it to another device so you could "get things from the phone" that didn't exist anywhere else, I would hope you've taken steps for that never to happen again.

I have to admit, I have a colleague who is clueless. He lost his iPhone a few weeks ago, and was mildly panicked only because of his photos--which he had NOT done anything with, for the reasons you outline. He just didn't know and, frankly, didn't care enough to know. The phone is an appliance--it works, right? You don't have to do anything.

He got his phone back, but I don't know if he's made any arrangements to be in a better spot next time.

(I have a Synology NAS and am loving it for things like this, btw...)

 

[Laura Knotek]

I use Samsung Messages, Samsung Members and Samsung Pay.

 

[VidJunky]

I use Samsung Messages, Samsung Members and Samsung Pay.

Well I was using Samsung Members but I had my account banned. LOL. I was going in the S10 threads trying to help people and let my frustration get the best of me. For those who don't know, there are moderators there that carry the Samsung tag in their screen names and they would offer half advice, not give instructions on how to do the things they were suggesting or leave some bazar comment that didn't even relate to the topic. The forum was just broken, like fundamentally broken, no spellcheck so you're constantly trying to figure out what people are saying while hoping your typing skills are up to muster, the AI was overly sensitive to everyday words no matter the context (Samsung literally has a feature built into the dialer called Caller ID and Spam protection, but you can't use the word spam in your reply naming the feature) and it considered everything a profane word, the moderators don't moderate (constantly finding posts that say just "Hi" or "this phone is great" with zero policing). If you commented in a thread you had to go the extra step to subscribe to the thread, which I honestly don't think worked all of the time, it was just broken. OK so maybe I'm a bit spoiled after spending so much time here and at every other Android forum I've ever been on but that was a mess. So I write one little post about how it could be better and all of the sudden I'm derogatory and hate bashing the moderators and then my account gets banned, go figure. Hahaha.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I forgot to mention that I also use Samsung Keyboard and Samsung Calendar.

 

[VidJunky]

I forgot to mention that I also use Samsung Keyboard and Samsung Calendar.

How do you like the keyboard? I've seen several complaints about it. Earlier this evening I accidentally switched to it and the keys seem really small in about the same footprint as Gboard.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

I am using Samsung email, gallery, dialled, themes, store, calendar, edge panels, internet (equally with chrome), I back up to Google Photos and use Keep for notes. I am using Samsung messages because I like the consistent theming. I get RCS with it as well. I am using Samsung keyboard as I like the stickers better than on GBoard. Considering I never liked Samsungs because of the 'bloatware' I am now using said bloatware all the time. And preferring it.

I too use Google Play Music as I have YouTube Premium and loads of music in the cloud. I use Google Drive over Samsung Cloud.

I am loving the Samsung experience now and am sorry I bashed it since it abandoned Touchwiz and moved to OneUI

 

[Morty2264]

I am using Samsung email, gallery, dialled, themes, store, calendar, edge panels, internet (equally with chrome), I back up to Google Photos and use Keep for notes. I am using Samsung messages because I like the consistent theming. I get RCS with it as well. I am using Samsung keyboard as I like the stickers better than on GBoard. Considering I never liked Samsungs because of the 'bloatware' I am now using said bloatware all the time. And preferring it.

I too use Google Play Music as I have YouTube Premium and loads of music in the cloud. I use Google Drive over Samsung Cloud.

I am loving the Samsung experience now and am sorry I bashed it since it abandoned Touchwiz and moved to OneUI

I too like the theming with Samsung Messages and RCS is really awesome; but I have only a few contacts who are using it/are able to use it which is a bummer.

I too am liking the "Samsung bloat" and coming from a Pixel 2 and as someone who loved the "pure" Android experience it's a little humbling to suddenly love a manufacturer-specific OS lool.

 

[me just saying]

me, I just use whatever works for me. really don't pay attention to the brand.

 

[VidJunky]

Just today I got a notification that I have 5 Samsung apps that had updates. When I went and looked there really was more like 10, most of which were what I would call bloat, AOD, Samsung video player, Gallery.... I don't regularly use any of them so I've opted to not update any of them, and about every week or so I get notifications for Samsung apps I didn't even know were on the device.

 

[Adam Frix]

they're not bloat.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

they're not bloat.

There's definitely a strong case that a hell of a lot of them are bloat.

Samsung loves it's bloat.

 

[Morty2264]

Just today I got a notification that I have 5 Samsung apps that had updates. When I went and looked there really was more like 10, most of which were what I would call bloat, AOD, Samsung video player, Gallery.... I don't regularly use any of them so I've opted to not update any of them, and about every week or so I get notifications for Samsung apps I didn't even know were on the device.

I got an update for a random Samsung app too - it was a gaming one or something. I don't even game on my phone! Samsung does have its bloat, that's for sure.