Samsung Galaxy S4: How to Change Home Screen Wallpaper in Android 5.0.1 Lollipop

In Samsung Galaxy S4, you can easily change your home screen background image(also called wallpaper) if you're bored with your current home screen wallpaper or if you want to give your home screen a personal touch. You can either use the default wallpapers(static or animated wallpapers) or any picture stored in your phone as your home screen wallpaper.


How to change home screen wallpaper?
In this post, we'll try to change home screen wallpaper by using two different methods: from the home screen and from the settings menu.

Method #1: From the home screen
If your Samsung Galaxy S4 has been updated to Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, you can use the following steps to change home screen wallpaper:

1. While you're on home screen, tap the Menu key or long tap on a blank area on the home screen.
2. Tap Wallpapers button at the bottom of the screen.
3. Select Home screen from the provided options displayed at the top of the screen.
4. To use static wallpaper go to the step #5, to use animated or live wallpaper go to the step #6, while to use your own picture as wallpaper go to the step #7.
5. Set a static wallpaper as home screen wallpaper:
• Swipe the provided static wallpaper at the bottom of the screen to the left or to the right and then tap the required static wallpaper.
• Tap Set as wallpaper button.
• The selected static wallpaper will be applied to your home screen.
6. Set a live wallpaper as home screen wallpaper:
• Swipe the provided wallpapers at the bottom of the screen to the rightmost and then tap the required live wallpaper(Bubbles or Phase beam).
• Tap Set as wallpaper button.
• The selected live wallpaper will be applied to your home screen.
7. Set your own picture as home screen wallpaper:
• Tap From Gallery thumbnail at the bottom of the screen.
• Select the required picture from the Gallery app.
• If needed, you can adjust the area of the selected picture that will be used as wallpaper.
• Tap Save button.
• The selected picture will be set as home screen wallpaper.

Method #2: From the settings menu
You can change your home screen wallpaper from the general settings menu by using the following steps:

1. On any screen, swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notifications panel and then tap at the top right to go to the settings menu.
2. Tap My device tab.
3. Tap Display.
4. Tap Wallpaper.
5. Select Home screen from the provided options displayed at the top of the screen.
6. To use static wallpaper go to the step #7, to use animated or live wallpaper go to the step #8, while to use your own picture as wallpaper go to the step #9. 
7. Set a static wallpaper as home screen wallpaper:
• Swipe the provided static wallpaper at the bottom of the screen to the left or to the right and then tap the required static wallpaper.
• Tap Set as wallpaper button.
• The selected static wallpaper will be applied to your home screen.
8. Set a live wallpaper as home screen wallpaper:
• Swipe the provided wallpapers at the bottom of the screen to the rightmost and then tap the required live wallpaper(Bubbles or Phase beam).
• Tap Set as wallpaper button.
• The selected live wallpaper will be applied to your home screen.
9. Set your own picture as home screen wallpaper:
• Tap From Gallery thumbnail at the bottom of the screen.
• Select the required picture from the Gallery app.
• If needed, you can adjust the area of the selected picture that will be used as wallpaper.
• Tap Save button.
• The selected picture will be set as home screen wallpaper.

Samsung Galaxy S4: How to Change Home Screen Transition Effect in Android 5.0.1 Lollipop

By default, Samsung Galaxy S4 allows you to have multiple home screens. It's useful since you can use those home screens to place more favourite apps and widgets for quick access. If you have updated your Samsung Galaxy S4 to Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, you'll have a new feature named transition effect that can be used to set your phone to play an effect when you're moving between home screens.

How to change home screen transition effect?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. While you're in home screen, tap the Menu key(it's located in the left side of the Home key) or long tap on a blank area in the home screen.
2. Tap Home screen settings button at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap Transition effect and then select from the following options:
• None: select this option if you don't want your phone plays any effect when you're moving from one home screen to another, in other words, select this option if you want to turn off home screen transition effect.
• Card stack: select this option if you want your phone plays the card stack effect when you're moving from one home screen to another.
• 3D rotation: select this option if you want your phone plays the 3D rotation effect when you're moving from one home screen to another.
4. Press the Home key to go back to your home screen.
5. To see home screen transition effect, move between home screens by swiping home screen to the left or to the right.

Samsung Galaxy S4: How to Add a Widget to Home Screen in Android 5.0.1 Lollipop

A widget is a simple application that is often part of an app that is already installed in your phone. You can place or add a widget to your home screen for quick access to information or feature without you have to open the app that manages this information or feature. As the example, a music widget will let you play music and control the music playback without you have to open the stock Music Player app. If you have updated your Samsung Galaxy S4 to Android 5.0.1 Lollipop, you'll notice that the way to access the widgets list is different than when your phone still runs with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or Android 4.4 Kitkat

How to add a widget to the home screen?
Before adding a widget, make sure you have free space enough in your home screen to place the widget. You can use the following steps to add a widget to your home screen:

1. While you're in home screen, tap the Menu key(it's located in the left side of the Home key) or long tap in a blank area in the home screen.
2. Tap the Widgets button at the bottom of the screen. All widgets available in your phone will be displayed here.
3. Swipe the screen to the left or to the right to find the required widget, or you can find the widget with more easily by utilizing the search function by using the following steps:
• Tap the Menu key and then select Search widgets.
• Enter the widget name in the search field and then tap in the keyboard to start searching.
• All widgets match with your search term will be displayed.
4. Tap and hold the required widget and then drag it to an empty area in the home screen.
5. Release to place the widget in the home screen. FYI, for some widgets, you may have to configure some settings before you can use the widgets. You just need to follow the on-screen instructions to complete the configuration.
6. The selected widget has been added in the home screen.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Disable Auto Add Icons for Newly Installed Apps to Home Screen in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Google Play Store is the official market for all Android phones, including with Samsung Galaxy S5, that can be used to install apps in condition that you have added a Google account into your phone. By default, once the installation of an app is completed, your phone will automatically add the icon for the app to home screen. But, if you don't like this feature, for instance when you don't want to place all new apps icons to home screen, you can easily turn this feature off in the Play Store app settings.

How to turn off auto add icons for newly installed apps to home screen?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Open the Play Store app.
2. Tap at the top left corner of the screen to open up the Play Store menus.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Clear the checkbox next to Add icon to Home screen to disable this option.
5. Now, your phone won't add the icons to home screen after you have finished installing apps from the Play Store.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Use Torch Light in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Samsung Galaxy S5 has a default widget named Torch which will let you use your phone as a flashlight to improve your visibility. This widget works by utilizing the LED flash below the rear camera to project a flashlight beam. You need to add the torch widget to your home screen first before you can use this widget to turn on or off the LED flash.

How to add the torch widget to home screen?
See the following steps to do so:

1. While you're in home screen, long press the Recent apps key or long tap on a blank area of the home screen to go to the home screen edit page.
2. Tap the Widgets icon at the bottom of the screen. It'll quickly bring you to the widgets list.
3. Find the Torch 1x1 widget.
4. Tap and hold the widget and then drag it to the home screen.
5. Release the widget to place it in home screen.
6. The torch widget has been added to home screen.

How to use the torch widget?
When you have added the torch widget in your home screen, you can use this widget to turn the LED flash on or off to improve your visibility. See the following steps as the example to use this widget:

1. Turn on the flashlight
   Tap the torch widget icon in home screen to turn on the flashlight. The torch widget turns green and the white light icon appears on the status bar as a sign that the flashlight is on.
2. Turn off the flashlight
   FYI, since this widget can't turn off automatically then you need to turn it off manually otherwise it will stay on even when the screen is locked or off. You can use one of the two following ways to turn off the flashlight:
• From home screen
  Tap the torch widget icon in home screen to turn off the flashlight. The torch widget icon turns gray and the white light icon disappear from the status bar as a sign that the flashlight is off.
• From the notification panel
  Swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notification panel and then tap the torch notification to turn off the flashlight.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Get Back Kids Mode Installer in Home Screen in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Some insiders have sent me emails and said that they had accidentally removed the kids mode installer icon from their home screens which made them couldn't install the kids mode app. FYI, since the kids mode installer is one of default widgets on the Samsung Galaxy S5 then you can easily get the kids mode installer icon back to your home screen simply by finding the kids mode widget from the widgets list and then add it to your home screen. Once done, you can use the kids mode installer icon that you have added to the home screen to install and configure the kids mode app.

How to add the kids mode widget to home screen?
Before doing this steps, make sure you have a free space on your home screen. Well, kindly use the following steps to re-add the kids mode widget to home screen:
1. While you're on home screen, long press the Recent apps key or long tap on a blank area of the home screen to go to the home screen edit page.
2. Tap Widgets icon at the bottom of the screen. It'll quickly bring you to the widgets list.
3. Find the Kids Mode 1x1 widget.
4. Tap and hold the widget and then drag it to the home screen.
5. Release the widget to place it.
6. Once done, tap the widget to install the kids mode. You can see the detail steps to install and configure the kids mode app here.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Add or Remove a City in Accuweather Widget in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

If you add your current city to the Accuweather widget, it'll help you to know the latest weather conditions in your city with ease. FYI, since this widget can handle more than one city, if needed you can also add another cities into the widget so that you can easily know the weather conditions in other cities directly from your home screen.

How to add a new city to the Accuweather widget?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Tap the Accuweather widget in your home screen.
2. Tap to add a new city.
3. Key in the city name in the search field and then tap to start searching.
4. Tap the required city from the search result list.
5. The selected city has been added to your Accuweather widget.
6. Press the Home key to go to your home screen.
7. To see the weather conditions in other cities you have added to the widget, swipe the Accuweather widget up or down.

How to remove a city from the Accuweather widget?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Tap the Accuweather widget in your home screen.
2. Tap to see all of cities you have added to this widget.
3. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Delete.
4.  Select the required city you want to delete.
5. Tap Done button.
6. Tap OK button to confirm.
7. The selected city has been deleted from the Accuweather widget.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Make Accuweather Widget Becomes Transparent in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

By default, the Accuweather widget on your home screen displays a picture in the background and it will change based on the current weather forecast. However, if you don't like the background picture, you can adjust the widget transparency in the widget settings menu so that the background picture of the widget will be invisible.

How to make the Accuweather widget becomes transparent?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. Tap the Accuweather widget on your home screen.
2. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Settings.
3. Tap Widget transparency. By default, the widget transparency is set to 0%.
4. Drag the widget transparency adjustment bar to the rightmost, or in other words, you have to adjust the widget transparency up to 100%. You'll get the preview when adjusting the widget transparency so that you'll get an idea how it might look like when the transparency has been adjusted.
5. Press the Home key to go to your home screen and you'll see the Accuweather widget becomes transparent.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Get Back Accuweather Widget to Home Screen in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

This week, more than two insiders sent me emails and said that they had accidentally removed the Accuweather widgets from their home screens and they wanted to get it back. FYI, since the Accuweather widget is a default widget in Samsung Galaxy S5, you can get it back to the home screen simply by finding the Accuweather widget from your widgets list and then add it to your home screen, as you used to do when adding a widget to home screen.

How to add the Accuweather widget to home screen?
Before doing the following steps, make sure you have a free space in your home screen. Do the following steps to add a weather widget to home screen:

1. While you're on home screen, long press the Recent apps key or long tap on a blank area of the home screen to go to the home screen edit page.
2. Tap Widgets icon at the bottom of the screen. It'll bring you to the widgets list.
3. Find the Weather 4x2 widget.
4. Tap and hold the widget and then drag it to the required space in home screen.
5. Release the widget to place it in home screen.
6. If you'd like to display your current city in the Accuweather widget, do as follows:
• Tap the weather widget.
• If your GPS is off, you need to turn it on by tapping the Settings button in a pop up window that appears in your screen. It'll quickly bring you to the Location menu.
• Tap the ON/OFF switch to turn on the location services.
• Press the Back key.
• Your current location will be displayed on the screen.
• Tap the current location to display it on the Accuweather widget in home screen.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Change Home Screen Transition Effect in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Samsung Galaxy S5 lets you have multiple home screens so that you can place more apps or widgets on there and can access them with more quickly. You can move between home screens by swiping home screen to the left or to the right. To make it more playful, you can enable a home screen transition effect so that your phone will play the effect when you're moving between home screens.

How to change home screen transition effect?
You can do so by using the following steps:

1. While you're on home screen, long press the Recent apps key or long tap on the blank space of the home screen to go to the home screen edit page.
2. Tap Home screen settings icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap Transition effect and then select from the following options:
• None: select this option if you don't want your phone plays any effect when you're moving from one home screen to another, in other words, select this option to turn off the home screen transition effect.
• Card stack: select this option if you want your phone plays the card stack effect when you're moving from one home screen to another.
• 3D rotation: select this option if you want your phone plays the 3D rotation effect when you're moving from one home screen to another.
4. Press the Home key to go back to your home screen.
5. To see the transition effect when moving between home screens, swipe the home screen to the left or to the right.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Add a Contact Shortcut to Home Screen in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

You may have some contacts that you communicate with frequently. To help you communicate with them, Samsung Galaxy S5 has provided you with some features that will allow you to access those contacts with ease, one of which is by letting you create a shortcut to the required contact in home screen. By creating a contact shortcut, you can easily reach the contact from home screen and then do the required action, e.g: call the contact, send a message, see the contact's detail, etc.


How to add a shortcut to a contact in home screen?
There are some methods that can be used to create a contact shortcut in home screen. But, this time I'm going to show you how to do so by using two different methods: from the Contacts app and from the home screen.

Method #1: From the Contacts app
When you're viewing a contact's detail page, you can create a shortcut to this contact to the home screen by using the following steps:

1. Open Contacts app.
2. If needed, tap the Contacts tab to view your contacts list.
3. Tap the required contact.
4. Tap or long press the Recent apps key to open up the additional options and then select Add shortcut to home screen.
5. A shortcut to the selected contact has been created in home screen. If you have added a photo to the contact, then the shortcut will display the photo contact.

Method #2: From the home screen
You can create a contact shortcut in home screen with a widget by using the following steps:

1. Long tap on the blank area of the home screen or long press the Recent apps key and then tap Widgets .
2. To find the widget with ease, you can use the search function by tapping and then select Search widgets.
3. Key in "contact" in the search field and all contact-related widgets will be displayed shortly.
4. Tap and hold the Contact 1x1 widget and then drag it to the blank area of the home screen. Release to place the widget on home screen.
5. Select the required contact you want to create its shortcut.
6. A shortcut to the selected contact has been created in home screen. If you have added a photo to the contact, then the shortcut will display the photo contact.

Samsung Galaxy S5: How to Enable and Customize Easy Mode in Android 4.4.2 Kitkat

Samsung Galaxy S5 allows you to change your default Home screen from the standard mode to the easy mode. When easy mode is enabled, you can use your phone more easily because the layout and the settings will be simplified, the large font will be applied throughout the phone and the apps or contacts can be accessed quickly. This feature will be useful for those of you who are new to smartphone or those of you who want a simpler layout or those of you who want to use the phone for doing the basic activities only.

How to enable Easy Mode?
Since your phone uses standard mode by default, then if you want to use easy mode you have to enable it manually by using the following steps:

1. Swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notifications panel.
2. Tap to go to the Settings menu.
3. With the Settings menu is displayed in grid view, scroll down to the Personalization section and then tap Easy mode .
4. Tap Easy mode to select and enable it.
5. Scroll down to the Easy applications section and you'll see a list of apps. By default, all apps in this list are selected/enabled which mean all of them will be viewed in simpler layout when you use them in easy mode. Thus, if you disable an app in this list, then the app will be viewed in the standard layout when you use this app in easy mode. The apps are:
• Camera
• Clock
• Email
• Gallery
• Internet
• Messages
• Music
• My Files
• Phone
• S Planner
• Video
• Voice Recorder
6. Tap Done button to save the change and apply the selections.
7. The easy mode will be applied.

How to customize easy mode?
Once easy mode is applied in your phone, you can customize this mode according to your need, for instance you can add or remove apps in Home screen, add or remove contacts in Home screen, show or hide additional Home screens and also access the settings menu.

Remove apps from the Home screen in easy mode
In case you want to remove unwanted or unused apps from Home screen, then you can do so by using the following steps:

1. In the Home screen, long tap the Recent apps key or tap to open up the additional options and then select Edit.
2. All removable apps, either in the main Home screen or in the additional ones, will be labelled with .
3. Tap in the required app you want to remove.
4. Tap OK to confirm.
5. The selected app has been deleted from the Home screen and the slot will be available for you to add another app.
6. To remove more apps, repeat from the step #3.
7. Press the Back key to exit from the edit screen.

Add apps to the Home screen in easy mode
You can use the available spots in the Home screen to place another apps by using the following steps:

1. Tap ,either in the main Home screen or the additional ones, to add apps.
2. Select the desired app you want to add.
3. The selected app has been added to the Home screen.
4. To add more apps, repeat from the step #1.

Enable or disable additional Home screens for apps in easy mode
By default, easy mode has a main Home screen and an additional Home screen to place apps. But, you can enable or disable two additional home screens for placing apps by using the following steps:

1. In the main Home screen, long tap the Recent apps key or tap to open up the additional options and then select Edit.
2. Enable additional Home screen for apps:
• Swipe the screen from right to the left until you see a Home screen that has Show and Hide button.
• Tap Show button.
• Now, you can use the available spots in this additional Home screen to add other apps.
3. Disable additional Home screen for apps:
• Swipe the screen from right to the left until you see a Home screen that has Show and Hide button.
• Tap Hide button.
• The Home screen has been disabled and hidden. FYI, the apps you have added to this Home screen won't be removed.
4. Press the Back key to exit from the edit screen.

Add contacts to Home screen in easy mode
You can use the available spots in the additional Home screen for contacts to place new contacts or the existing ones by using the following steps:

1. From the main Home screen, swipe the screen from left to the right.
2. Tap and then you'll see two options available, they are:
• Create: select this option if you want to use the selected slot to place a new contact.
• Existing: select this option if you want to use the selected slot to place an existing contact.
3. Depending on your selection, follow the on-screen instructions to complete adding contact to the Home screen.
4. To add more contacts, repeat from the step #2.

Remove contacts from Home screen in easy mode
In case you want to remove contacts from your Home screen, then you can do so by using the following steps:

1. In the main Home screen, long tap the Recent apps key or tap to open up the additional options and then select Edit.
2. Swipe the screen from left to the right.
3. Tap in the desired contact you want to remove.
4. Tap OK button.
5. The selected contact has been removed from the Home screen.
6. To remove more contacts, repeat from the step #3.

Enable or disable additional Home screen for contacts in easy mode
By default, easy mode has an additional Home screen for contacts. But, you can enable or disable an additional home screen for placing contacts by using the following steps:

1. In the Home screen, long tap the Recent apps key or tap to open up the additional options and then select Edit.
2. Enable Home screen for contacts:
• Swipe the screen from left to the right until you see a Home screen that has Show and Hide button.
• Tap Show button.
• Now, you can use the available spots in this Home screen to add contacts.
3. Disable Home screen for contacts:
• Swipe the screen from left to the right until you see a Home screen that has Show and Hide button.
• Tap Hide button.
• The Home screen has been disabled and hidden. FYI, all contacts you have added to this Home screen won't be removed.
4. Press the Back key to exit from the edit screen.

Access and use the settings menu in easy mode
You can access and use the settings menu in easy mode use by using the following steps:

1. From the main Home screen, swipe the screen from right to the left to find the Easy settings icon and then tap it to go to the settings menu. Or, swipe down the top of the screen to open up the notifications panel and then tap to go to the settings menu.
2. In the Easy settings, you can see some menus available, they are:
• Sound mode: use this menu to change sound mode.
• Font: use this menu to change the font size and style.
• Brightness: use this menu to change the screen brightness and disable/enable auto brightness.
• Ringtone and volume: use this menu to change ringtone and adjust the volume for call, notification and media.
• Wi-Fi: use this menu to enable/disable and customize Wi-Fi.
• Bluetooth: use this menu to enable/disable and customize Bluetooth.
• Data usage: use this menu to see your data usage.
• Wallpaper: use this menu to change the wallpaper for your Home screen and Lock screen.
• Easy mode: use this menu to disable easy mode and re-enable standard mode.
• Screen lock: use this menu to change the screen lock method.
• Notification panel: use this menu to customize your notifications panel.
• More settings: use this menu to access the settings menu in standard mode.

Since this mode will simplify the layout and the settings, then you may notice that you can't perform some actions or use some features while you're in this mode, for instance you can't use zoom function when you take a picture or use multi window while the easy mode is being activated.