For some reason, the very best Samsung tools and customization settings aren’t shipped enabled by default. Instead, some of the best are hidden away in an app you have to download separately.

If you’re familiar with Microsoft’s PowerToys, Good Lock is quite similar in concept. It’s an official set of tools that alter or improve numerous aspects of how your One UI-based Galaxy phone looks and works. Just like PowerToys, it’s a little baffling why these excellent options aren’t just shipped with the phone by default, but at least you’re just seconds away from transforming your Galaxy phone into something special.

Home Up completely transforms One UI

This is the one

If you’re going to install any of the Good Lock modules, Home Up is the one you want. This module lets you customize just about every aspect of the One UI home screen. You may not use custom launchers anymore, but with this level of control, you’re basically getting a lot of what made them popular without voiding your warranty.

The level of granularity on display is really impressive. You can tune UI elements to have specific opacity levels or change the grid layout of icons. You can shrink or grow widgets and add a customizable edge panel. There really isn’t enough room to even scratch the surface here. You could spend all day tweaking your phone with what’s on offer here.

So it’s a good thing Home Up also has an automatic backup feature. If I lost hours of tweaked settings, there’s a good chance I’d defenestrate my phone.

One Hand Operation+ makes large phones effortless to use

How to live with a huge phone screen

One of Steve Jobs’ rare misses was predicting that no one would buy a big phone. The iPhone hung onto its tiny screen for a long time, but eventually even Apple relented, and today we have Apple phones with screens just as large as the bulkiest Android units.

People love big screens, but it does present a challenge when using your phone one-handed. While Samsung has offered some features to help users use its big phones with just one hand, nothing comes close to One Hand Operation+. My colleague Cory Gunther found that it totally changed how he uses his phone.

Using this module in Good Lock, you can create special control elements that let you do pretty much anything with one hand. By using these customizable “handles” on the sides of the screen, you can program customized gestures that let you do things with your phone you’d never expect to be possible with just one hand. Yes, this takes a lot of tweaking and learning new muscle memory, but as Cory found, if you put in the time, it will pay you back tenfold.

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Sound Assistant gives you total control over your audio

Now this sounds like a good deal

One of the things I hate the most about iPhones is that it doesn’t have the Android sound mixer that lets me adjust the volume of individual media types, like the ringer, messages, or music. However, even that feels downright primitive compared to what’s possible with Sound Assistant.

The headline feature here is the ability to adjust the volume of individual apps. You can also change the appearance of the volume mixer and change the number of volume steps. There’s also the “Bluetooth Metronome” that lets you sync up your audio with video, which is a real problem with certain Bluetooth headsets.

Camera Assistant fixes Samsung’s biggest camera frustrations

Perfect photos in a snap

It’s no exaggeration to say that, these days, one of the most important specs that sways people to buy one phone over another is the camera system. The combination of camera hardware and software is what produces those wonderful photos.

So it’s really amazing that Samsung offers numerous tweaks in the Camera Assistant module for Good Lock. You can boost the shutter speed or force the camera to perfect its focus before taking the photo at the cost of a slower shutter release. You can toggle automatic lens switching, tweak HDR behavior, and a long list of other adjustments. If taking photos with your phone matters to you, this module is essential.

Good Lock is what makes Galaxy phones different

Good Lock has far more to talk about, and likely some modules that are perfect for your needs. Theme Park allows you to customize and create themes. LockStar lets you make new lock screens and always-on display styles.

You are looking at quite a time investment, and this level of power over the interface of your phone isn’t always intuitive to wield, but there’s no rooting. No risk. You can always just flip things back to default or try something else. Good Lock is a killer feature for Samsung phones, and it’s really a little shocking that it isn’t marketed front and center.