The Samsung Galaxy S8 was basically the moment the modern smartphone was born. When it dropped back in 2017, that curved glass and the "Infinity Display" made everything else look like a dusty relic from a decade prior. Honestly, even in 2026, there’s something about the Samsung home screen S8 experience that feels more intentional than the cluttered mess we see on some newer devices.
It wasn’t just about the hardware. It was the "Samsung Experience" software—the bridge between the old-school TouchWiz (which was, let's be real, kind of a disaster) and the One UI we use today.
The Invisible Home Button Magic
You remember the physical click? The S8 was the first time Samsung killed the tactile home button, but they didn't just leave us hanging with a flat piece of glass. They baked a pressure sensor right under the display. If you hard-press the bottom-center of the Samsung home screen S8, you get a haptic "thump" that feels eerily like a real button.
Most people don't realize you can actually customize how much pressure it takes to trigger that.
Head into Settings > Display > Navigation bar. There’s a slider for "Hard press Home button." Crank it up if you’ve got heavy thumbs, or light if you want it to feel like a hair-trigger. It's a small detail, but it makes navigating the UI feel way more mechanical and satisfying than just tapping a virtual icon.
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Customizing the Grid (And Why It Matters)
Stock settings usually give you a 4x5 layout. It’s fine, I guess, but it wastes so much of that 5.8-inch (or 6.2-inch on the Plus) screen.
Change it. Now.
Long-press any empty spot on your Samsung home screen S8 and hit Home screen settings. You can push the grid up to 5x6. Suddenly, your phone doesn't look like a "Senior Mode" device anymore. You can fit more widgets, more shortcuts, and actually see your wallpaper. Speaking of wallpapers, the "Infinity Wallpapers" were the S8's secret weapon. They transition from the Always On Display to the lock screen and then settle into the home screen with a seamless zoom effect.
It’s subtle. It’s classy. It’s something Samsung weirdly moved away from in later years.
Making the App Drawer Work for You
By default, the S8 uses a vertical swipe to open the app drawer. If you’re coming from an older phone, you might be looking for the "Apps" button. You can actually bring it back if you’re a traditionalist.
- Long-press the home screen.
- Tap Home screen settings.
- Select Apps button.
- Choose Show Apps button.
But honestly? Just learn the swipe. It’s faster. Plus, you can hide apps you don't use—like those random carrier-installed "utilities" that nobody asked for—by using the Hide apps tool in that same settings menu.
The Edge Panels: Love Them or Hate Them?
The curved edge isn't just for looking pretty while your phone is face down on a table. The Edge Panel is that little translucent handle on the right side. Swipe it out, and you’ve got a second home screen specifically for tools.
Most users just leave the "Apps edge" there. Boring.
Go into Settings > Display > Edge screen > Edge panels. You can add a "Smart Select" panel that lets you cut out GIFs from YouTube videos or pin a piece of text to the top of your screen while you type in another app. It’s basically a pro-level multitasking tool hiding in plain sight.
Samsung Home Screen S8: Dealing With the Red Tint
Wait, we have to talk about the "Redgate" thing. Early S8 models had this weird issue where the screen looked a bit too warm—almost pinkish. If your Samsung home screen S8 looks like it's blushing, don't panic. Samsung pushed a software fix for this years ago.
Go to Settings > Display > Screen mode. You’ll see "Full screen color balance." You can manually pull the Red slider down until the whites look like actual white. It's not a hardware failure; it was just a calibration quirk from the factory.
Navigation Bar Hacks
Since the buttons are software now, you can swap the "Back" and "Recents" buttons. Samsung puts the Back button on the right by default. If you’re coming from a Pixel or any other Android phone, this will drive you insane.
Switch it back in the Navigation bar settings. You can also change the background color of the nav bar to match your theme, though keeping it transparent or black usually looks best on that OLED panel.
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Actionable Next Steps for S8 Owners
If you're still rocking an S8 or setting one up as a secondary device, do these three things to make the home screen actually usable in the current year:
- Force High Resolution: Out of the box, the S8 often defaults to FHD+ (2220x1080). To see the home screen in its full glory, go to Settings > Display > Screen resolution and slide it to WQHD+ (2960x1440). It eats a tiny bit more battery, but the text becomes razor-sharp.
- Install Good Lock: If you can still find it in the Galaxy Store for your OS version, download the Good Lock app. It unlocks "Home Up," which lets you customize the blur effect of the app drawer and change how the "Recents" cards look.
- Optimize the Icon Frames: Samsung used to put "squircle" frames around every icon to make them look uniform. It looks a bit dated now. Go to Settings > Display > Icon frames and select Icons only for a much cleaner, more modern look.
The Samsung home screen S8 was a turning point for mobile design. Even without the fancy "Galaxy AI" features of the 2026 flagship models, the foundations laid here—the gesture navigation, the edge lighting, and the haptic home button—still hold up as a masterclass in how a phone should feel in your hand.