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How to Customize the Galaxy S5 Notification Bar

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Now that the Samsung Galaxy S5 is finally here and readily available around the United States, more and more consumers are starting to get their hands on the impressive flagship smartphone.

While the Samsung Galaxy S5 is a powerful smartphone loaded with features, many of those features or quick settings to enable them are hidden away in menus. Of course WiFi and Bluetooth are easy to access with a single swipe from the top of the screen in the notification bar, but did you know all of that is completely customizable?

Read: How to Take a Screenshot on the Galaxy S5

Users who are enjoying the Galaxy S5 but always have WiFi or Bluetooth turned on (or off) and would like the notification pulldown bar, or even the Quick Settings Menu which will talk about below, all to have different options below we’ll explain exactly how do to that. Samsung allows for plenty of customization, and it only takes a few taps to change all the options in the notification drawer and pulldown bar.

Samsung-Galaxy-S5-Review-005-X3-620x444

As many users have probably noticed the notification pulldown bar has five quick toggles for settings, and depending on the carrier you’ll even have an always-present slider to change the brightness of your display. If you pulldown the notification bar with two fingers instead of one, you’ll get an even better “Quick Settings” menu. The same menu can be achieved by pulling down the notification drawer and tapping the top right button with three squares and a rotating arrow type icon.

This is officially called the Quick Settings or Toggles menu. The original 5 quick setting toggles in the pulldown bar can be changed and customized, as can this entire quick settings menu. Of course these are based on each users needs, so read on to see how easy it is to change them.

Instructions

It’s extremely simple. Users will start by pulling down the notification bar and tapping the top right squares icon to access “Quick Settings” or simply pull down with two fingers. From here you’ll see WiFi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, and a few other options that look similar to what’s shown below.

Screen Shot 2014-06-16 at 3.47.34 PM

Tap the top right icon to head into the quick settings menu, then tapping the “Pencil” on the top of the display will take you to edit mode. Once you tap the pencil icon in the top right of the secondary notification pulldown quick settings bar you’ll be directed into the Notification Panel edit settings location. From here (depending on carrier) you can completely remove the brightness adjustment slider from the bar, and set all the quick settings buttons we mentioned above.

Below is a look at what you’ll need to tap, and how easy it is to change them.

GS5-drawer

From here you’ll be able to change and edit the Active buttons, and all the buttons to whatever you’d like. All 10 settings shown in the top right of the image above are available with your first pulldown of the notification bar. Just swipe to the side and they’ll all appear.

Read: How to Disable My Magazine on the Galaxy S5

However, once you’ll selected the pencil and are in the edit mode as shown above (and below) changing or customizing the notification pulldown drawer options is extremely easy. Simply long press any toggle you’d like to remove and once it’s highlighted you can drag and drop it anywhere you’d like. This will allow users to change the order of settings toggles, or remove something like WiFi if you’re like me and never turn it off. No need for a toggle if you’ll never disable it. Replace it with Toolbox, power save mode, or even airplane mode for the frequent traveler.

GS5-drawer-edit

Here you can drag ‘n’ drop your favorite toggles or settings to the Active buttons, which is the first list you see when you pulldown the notification bar, as well as fully customize the larger “Quick Settings” menu that you can access by a two-finger swipe. That’s all there is to it.

There’s tons of options here for screen mirroring, smart pause where videos stop playing when you look away from the display, blocking mode, or even Samsung’s new download booster if your carrier didn’t disable it.

All of this is customizable, so head into settings and change whatever you’d like to get the most out of your Galaxy S5 and the notification drawer.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. vijisathya

    06/16/2014 at 10:38 pm

    I really appreciate the fact that you approach these topics from a stand point of knowledge and information. This is the first time, I visited at your site and became your fan. You are bookmarked. Please keep on posting.

  2. Cory Gunther

    06/17/2014 at 9:26 am

    Thanks pal.. Glad you enjoyed it ;)

  3. hi. i have read your instructions. and i have a note 2. however, the edit part of the notification panel does not work. when i go to settings > notification panel – it does not go there. it just stays at settings. please help.

  4. Heimdall

    07/06/2016 at 6:54 am

    It looked promising, customizing the notification bar. The article doesn’t deliver, though. It tells about customising what you see when you pull it down but I want to customize the notification bar itself. In particular it’s too small, the icons are small and the clock displayed on the right of notification bar is too small.

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