These days, we all want better battery life and a little more privacy on our smartphones. But what if I told you there’s one Samsung feature hiding deep in the settings menu that not only drains your battery but also collects your data?

I’ve recently been on a little quest to improve battery life and free up space on my Samsung Galaxy phone. Whether that’s uninstalling apps I don’t need, watching my battery usage, and cleaning up the digital clutter. That’s when I realized it wasn’t 3rd-party apps or social media draining my juice, but a little-known Samsung feature called “Customization Service.” Here’s what you need to know and how to disable it.

What is Samsung Customization Service?

And how it drains your battery

Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Justin Duino / How-To Geek

When you first got your Galaxy phone, you probably accidentally enabled the Customization Service feature during initial setup or when you signed in to your Samsung account. It’s one of those things that is easy to overlook, and it doesn’t sound like it’ll hurt your battery life. Unfortunately, it can and does.

Customization Service collects your data across Samsung services, apps, and even third-party apps, then uses that information to show you personalized recommendations, suggestions, or ads. Furthermore, the feature clarifies things a bit and says that it will “allow your Samsung apps and devices to use your activities and interests to provide custom content and improve search results,” among other things.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t need Samsung collecting all of that information about me. And naturally, the app has to run in the background to gather that endless amount of data, then wake up your phone’s radios and Wi-Fi to send everything to Samsung’s servers. Of course, that’ll use some battery.

The more Samsung apps and services you use, the more data collection and processing will go on in the background. For some, it won’t be much, but for others, this app could be at the top of your battery usage meter. As a reminder, here’s how to check your battery usage on Samsung Galaxy phones.

How to disable Samsung’s Customization Service

Improved battery life is just a bonus

Now that you know more about this secret feature hiding in the settings menu, here’s how to turn it off.

Head to Settings > Accounts > Samsung account > Security and privacy > and tap on Customization Service. Flip the toggle at the top, then hit Stop or Okay to confirm when you get the little pop-up. It’s that simple. Or, to make things way easier, go to Settings and search for Customization Service, which will take you right to where you need to be.

Note: If you’re more worried about privacy than battery life, before you disable Samsung’s Customization Service, you might want to erase all the data it has already collected. If so, once you’re in the Customization Service section, tap Erase personal data, then follow the steps.

It’s also worth noting that if you want to keep this feature turned on, for whatever reason, you can do that while still limiting what it has access to. The Customization Service menu lets you see which activities and interests it tracks, provides data management information, and offers an option called Customized Apps. Tap that, then uncheck any app you don’t want collecting data.

Once you’ve done some of these steps or turned it off completely, Samsung will stop collecting some of this information. You’ll also stop seeing it appear in your battery usage, and potentially get a little more runtime out of each charge, and that’s just a bonus.

There aren’t any downsides to turning it off

It’s worth noting that how you set up your phone, how you use it, and which apps you use most will all affect how much Samsung’s Customization Service feature affects you. And since it’s not an app anywhere, when you check battery usage and see it appear, many will assume it’s just a part of Samsung’s built-in tools, and think nothing of it. Technically, that’s true, but you don’t need it.

I haven’t noticed any downsides to turning it off, and you probably won’t either. All your apps and services will keep working, although the ads you receive on Samsung services might not be as targeted. I ignore most of those anyway, so that’s no big deal.

And if your old phone still doesn’t last long enough, then maybe it’s time for an upgrade.

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Samsung

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