Samsung Galaxy S25 Tips And Tricks: 10 Ways To Get More Out Of Your Galaxy Device

Setting up a brand-new phone is one of my favorite things. Whether starting from scratch or carefully restoring apps, messages, and photos that matter to me, it always feels like a fresh start. With that fresh start usually comes something new to explore, like a new camera mode, updated AI features, or maybe even something I’ve never considered. Sometimes, you get a bit of all three — like with Samsung’s new Galaxy S25 series.

Samsung Galaxy S25 tips & tricks

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Try the Now Brief

One of the first things you should check out on your Samsung Galaxy S25 device is, well, one of the first things you’ll see every day. Yes, it might look slightly like Samsung is lifting its inspiration from Apple’s Dynamic Island, but there’s much more to the Now Brief than that. The Now Brief only really covers half of Samsung’s real-time update feature, working in close concert with the similar but not identical Now Bar.

Essentially, the Now Brief is an all-in-one place to check what you have coming up for the day. It pulls the hourly weather forecast for the day and any calendar appointments you might have lined up and pairs them with news articles you might be interested in, along with a Spotify playlist for the day. I like that it puts just enough of the things you might need together in one place, yet it never feels like you’re downgrading your Galaxy S25 experience if you forget to check it once or twice throughout the day.

Buy a compatible phone case

Although the Now Brief and Now Bar are brand-new features, our next Galaxy S25 tip is anything but. It’s a return to our favorite broken record — a reminder that you should always, always, buy a phone case. Yes, Samsung may be using tougher materials than ever, with Gorilla Glass that keeps getting stronger and the return of titanium on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but no smartphone is invincible. All it takes is one errant drop, and you could be looking at a spiderweb of cracks across your $1,000 phone.

So, with that in mind, buy a phone case. It doesn’t have to be an expensive first-party option — though Samsung’s collaboration with Hershey’s Chocolate takes the candy bar phone to a new level — just please, buy something. If you’re unsure where to start, we’ve done some legwork for you. We’ve put together guides for the best Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus cases and Galaxy S25 Ultra cases, including a mix of brands and case styles for all three devices.

Dip into Samsung’s camera filters

Now, back to the brand-new features that Samsung has added to the Galaxy S25 series. Well, maybe not brand-new, but certainly reimagined. Remember the good old days when you couldn’t post a photo to Instagram without slapping an obnoxious old filter on it? Well, those days are back again — but they’ve grown up. Taking a page out of Apple’s book with its Photographic Styles, Samsung has introduced a new set of camera filters to the Galaxy S25 series, and I think you should check them out.

If it helps, you don’t have to think of Samsung’s new tools as filters. They won’t add dog ears or make your face sparkle like a vampire from Twilight — they’re more like Fujifilm-level film simulations. Samsung’s filters allow you to change the color profile of your image, along with the saturation, contrast, and film grain (basically manual control over your ISO). If you’re not sold on any of the dozen default filters, you can also drag sliders for each setting to raise and lower its intensity.

Give Gemini a try

Last year, when I sat down to write these tips about the Galaxy S24 series, one of the first things I suggested was to remap the Bixby button. After all, I rarely used Samsung’s in-house assistant and figured I probably wasn’t alone. So, when the Galaxy S25 Ultra landed on my desk, and a long press of its power button opened Gemini rather than Bixby, I couldn’t help but feel a little vindicated. Now, you could always remap the button away from Gemini, too, if AI isn’t your thing, but this time, I think you should give it a try.

Unlike Bixby, which always felt like the second-best option behind Google Assistant, Gemini feels perfectly capable in most situations. Whether you’re planning a weekend trip with Gemini Live and asking for advice on great museums in a new place or simply trying to find a recommendation for a new video game, Google’s AI-powered assistant picks up on much more context than its predecessors. I also appreciate that it’s much easier to interrupt Gemini, especially if it takes your suggestions off in a different direction than you might have expected.

Cut videos with Auto Trim

Although you can opt out of having Gemini launch from a hardware button, several of our remaining tips will center around Galaxy AI, so you might have a tough time escaping it altogether. For example, Auto Trim is one of the newest camera tricks available on the Galaxy S25 series, and it’s about as easy as it sounds. Essentially, Auto Trim acts like a pocket-sized video editor in your Gallery app, drawing the highlights out of your clips so that you can publish a shiny Instagram Reel or TikTok much faster.

Doodle with Drawing Assist

Sticking with the creative side of Galaxy AI, it just got a whole lot easier to doodle on the Galaxy S25 series and have Samsung clean it up for you. Samsung’s version of Android 15 introduces an updated, much-improved version of Sketch to Image, now called Drawing Assist. It essentially works the same way that Sketch to Image did, taking your handheld, often shaky doodles and turning them into sharper, more identifiable images. Also, unlike Sketch to Image, Drawing Assist doesn’t require starting with a photo, making it even easier to let your imagination roam.

Search for photos deep inside your camera roll

Another AI-powered feature I’ve come to appreciate is that everyone wants to make searching for things on your phone easier. Whether it’s Apple with a redesigned Photos app or OnePlus with context-aware search, it seems like the hot new thing is to take the guesswork out of your searches. Samsung is no exception, and it’s starting with your camera roll.

Once again, to tap into the full strength of Samsung’s Galaxy AI, you’ll have to use its in-house Gallery app rather than Google Photos. However, once there, you can use the Search feature (marked by the usual magnifying glass) to look for shots of familiar faces — whether people or pets — or figure out exactly which day you spent exploring a national landmark like Independence Hall.

Create a Galaxy Avatar

Moving on, I’ll admit that I thought the days of Memoji and Bitmoji were behind us. I figured that most people wouldn’t be using an animated version of themselves and that it would probably disappear from smartphones before long — or at least be minimized. And yet, Samsung has decided that 2025 is the year to bring back animated avatars in a big way. It’s rebranded AR Emojis as Galaxy Avatars and massively reduced the creepy factor in the process.

As much as Samsung may have liked its previous AR Emoji setup, the finished products were usually a little bit too close to the uncanny valley, and as a result, I can count on one hand the number of times I ever sent them to friends or family. These days, though, the Galaxy Avatars are a little bit closer to Apple’s Memojis, which is to say they’re much cuter and a little more cartoonish — though Samsung’s model seems to struggle when your subject is wearing a hat in the reference image.

Pick up a speedy charger (but skip Qi2 support)

Since we’ve already discussed buying a case for your new Galaxy S25 device, let’s return to another all-important accessory: a shiny new charger. If you’re using a fairly recent Galaxy device, you might be able to discount this tip, but if you’re switching from an iPhone, a Motorola device, or any number of other phones, you may need to spend a little bit more to reach peak charging speeds.

Although Samsung hasn’t wavered from 25W wired charging on its Galaxy S25 or 45W speeds on the Galaxy S25 Plus or Ultra, you’ll still need a USB PD PPS-enabled charger to reach those maximum speeds. Thankfully, there are plenty of high-speed options, including chargers with multiple ports and USB-C and USB-A ports. You just have to decide which one will best meet your needs.

Personalize your wallpaper with AI

Last but certainly not least, don’t forget to customize your phone. Samsung made a few changes to some of the most basic parts of One UI 7, like a few app icons and widgets, but it’s up to you to make the rest of your device feel like home. Whether that means dipping into Samsung’s AI-powered wallpaper generator or simply loading up a few shots from your gallery, all that really matters is the phone feels more like your own.

I’m still a fan of Samsung’s generative wallpaper tool, at least because it allows me to switch up the landscape I have to look at every day. Right now, I’m rolling with a surreal set of mountains in shades of navy blue, and it’s a much better look than the basic wallpaper that comes preloaded on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.