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How to Remove that Annoying Tab on the Galaxy Note 3 Screen

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With the release of the Galaxy Note 2 Samsung revealed a new feature called Multi Window mode for true multitasking on your Android smartphone, allowing users to open two different applications at the same time. Using a convenient little pull-out tab located on the left edge of the screen you can quickly enable this feature. However, many find that little tab annoying, myself included, so here’s how to get rid of it on the Galaxy Note 3 and more.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2, and the brand new Note 3 all use this feature, so this how to can be applied across all the devices I just mentioned. There’s two different ways to do this. If you want to know how to temporarily, or permanently get rid of the Tab on your device, read on for a set of quick and simple instructions.

Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 10.48.33 AM

How to Remove the Multi Window Mode Tab on your Galaxy Device

For starters, this little tab can actually be moved to any location you see fit. So should you decide to keep it around for convenience, but don’t like the location, we have that covered too. Simply long press the tab and you can slide it around to any side or area you want, so it won’t be in the way. It’s worth keeping for reading emails while viewing YouTube, or any other multi-tasking capabilities.

If you’re like me you probably just want to get rid of it altogether. You’ll be amazed to know that a quick long-press on the dedicated “back” button on your smartphone (right of the home button) will actually remove that obnoxious tab. Give it a try. It’s that simple. A long-press again and it will return.

If that annoying little tab on the Galaxy Note 3 (or any other devices we mentioned) was getting in your way, just long-press the back button and it will disappear. However, I found that I accidentally enable it again all the time, and then have to stop what I’m doing to quickly long-press and remove it once more. It gets quite old, so here’s how to disable it completely.

Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 10.45.09 AM

You’ll need to completely disable the Multi window feature of your Galaxy device to ensure this Tab doesn’t take over your screen again, and there’s two ways you can do this. Above is the regular way through settings menus, and below is the quick toggle. We’ll explain both.

Instructions

Hit the dedicated menu button on your device and tap “settings” (or find the Gear shaped Settings icon in your app tray) and from here you’ll hit the second column on top. Once in the “Device” settings window you’ll scroll down to “Multi window” and swipe the setting to off. This will completely disable multi window mode, and that little tab will never appear again.

Menu > Settings > Device > and uncheck Multi window mode. On the Galaxy S3 and S4 this is in the same section under “My Device” but in the “Display” settings menu. Again, uncheck Multi window mode.

Alternatively you can quickly enable and disable the entire setting in a much easier fashion. Thanks to Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and above the notification pulldown bar at the top has a bevy of features and controls. Pull down the notification bar and select the icon in the top right (looks like four squares) and this will bring up the Quick Settings menu. From here just find the Multi Window setting as shown in the image below and uncheck it. It’s as simple as that.

Screen Shot 2013-10-16 at 11.26.03 AM

 Should You Disable This?

With a large 5.7-inch screen on the Galaxy Note 3 users will be able to take full advantage of this feature by having two applications and windows open at once. You can simply slide apps from that Tab to the top or bottom of the screen. It’s a nice feature, but something I rarely use. As a result that Tab ends up in the way and I just end up disabling the feature completely.

If you’re one that does a lot of multi-tasking you’ll probably want to keep this feature, but this is all about personal preference. If you like the quick access keep it around, if not, just remove it or disable the option completely via the details outlined above.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Vladimir

    10/16/2013 at 2:54 pm

    Ah, finally – Problem solved!

    Don’t even know why they’ve implemented such a bad feature

    • Cory Gunther

      10/17/2013 at 9:28 am

      Glad we could help. It’s an awesome feature, but the tab appearing so easily can be frustrating.

  2. C Jacobs

    10/16/2013 at 3:40 pm

    Or you could just hold the back button which still allows you to use multi-tab but hides the stub so it’s not showing….

  3. Adam Brunt

    10/16/2013 at 5:22 pm

    my main problem with the multi window is that when it is turned on it screws with messaging the keyboard fails to come up very often or jumps to the wrong size

  4. jennifer

    02/23/2014 at 8:56 pm

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Crazy what an easy fix that was to something that was driving me beyond nuts. :)

  5. Mark H

    04/04/2014 at 5:09 am

    just brilliant… this has been annoying the hell out of me and it was that simple. Thanks so much!

  6. Stephen

    05/13/2014 at 12:48 pm

    What a helpful little trick. Thank you so much!

  7. Lee

    05/13/2014 at 4:28 pm

    Thank you so much! That was easy. I hate that tab – it gets in the way of everything!

  8. Joseph Cotton

    06/19/2014 at 12:35 am

    Thank you so much for this. No matter where I put that annoying thing, it’s always in the way of something.

  9. Shelly

    11/06/2014 at 3:23 pm

    Thank you so much! That was the best thing ive ever done. And the easiest!

  10. jeff

    12/15/2014 at 9:26 pm

    Great post. That tab was driving me crazy. Such a simple fix. THANK YOU!

  11. DCten

    04/18/2015 at 2:21 pm

    aaah, great
    Thank you, that has made my day!
    Constantly in the way/opening up when trying to do something else, email etc. etc.

  12. Diona

    08/27/2015 at 11:08 am

    Thank you. Very simple. Made my day too!! ♥

  13. Karen

    11/15/2015 at 2:40 am

    This worked! That tab was driving me crazy for weeks! Thank you so much!

  14. alfredo

    06/04/2016 at 12:37 am

    I’m having a trouble with the tabs, they just keep adding, I can’t delete them, ,I go to the close option, where I try to close one by one, but they don’t close, I go to the history ,clear the history and pages are still there, how can I close them? .

  15. omar

    06/29/2016 at 6:38 pm

    what about whit screen ???
    any one can help please ?

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