Prologue: Getting to Know Your Galaxy S7

In this chapter, you become familiar with the external features of the Galaxy S7 and the basics of getting started with the Android operating system. Topics include the following:

Getting to know your Galaxy S7’s external features

Learning gestures and motions

Setting up your Galaxy S7 for the first time

Learning the fundamentals of Android 6.01 (Marshmallow) and TouchWiz

Installing desktop synchronization software

Before you start customizing your Galaxy S7 and working with apps, you should examine the external features, device features, and the Android 6.01 operating system.

In addition to Android 6.01 (Marshmallow), this chapter covers the Samsung TouchWiz interface, which is overlaid on top of Android to adjust the way things look and function.

• Light sensor—Adjusts the brightness of your Galaxy S7’s screen based on the brightness of the ambient light.

• Earpiece—The part you hold against your ear while on a call.

• Indicator light—Indicates new events (such as missed calls, new Facebook messages, and new emails). This indicator light is invisible until it illuminates.

• Front camera—A 5.0-megapixel front-facing camera that you use for video chat, taking self-portraits, and even unlocking your Galaxy S7 using your face.

• Touchscreen—On the Galaxy S7, a 5.1″ 1440×2560 pixel Quad HD Super AMOLED (Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screen that incorporates capacitive touch. On the Galaxy S7 edge, a 5.5″ 1440×2560 pixel Quad HD Super AMOLED (Super Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), dual-edge screen that incorporates capacitive touch.

• Back button—Takes you back one screen when you’re using an application or menu. This is a touch-sensitive button.

• Recent Apps button—Shows you a list of apps you recently used. You can then touch to jump to them or swipe them off the screen to close them. Touch and hold to see additional options for the current screen. The Recent Apps button replaces the Menu button on previous Galaxy S series phones.

• Home button/fingerprint reader—Takes you to the Home screen. The application that you are using continues to run in the background. Press twice to launch the Camera app. Press and hold to launch Google Now. A fingerprint reader is built in to the Home button; you can read more about it in Chapter 1, “Making the S7 Your Own.”

• Power button—Allows you to wake up your Galaxy S7 by pressing once. Press and hold for one second to reveal a menu of choices. The choices enable you to power off your S7, restart your S7, or put it into Emergency mode. In Emergency mode, your S7 greatly reduces battery usage and starts reporting its location to a chosen contact.

• Rear camera—A 12-megapixel camera with autofocus and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) that takes clear pictures close up or far away.

• LED (light-emitting diode) camera flash—Helps to illuminate the surroundings when you’re taking pictures in low light.

• Heart rate sensor—While using the S Health app, place your finger over the heart rate sensor to allow S Health to detect your heart rate.

• SIM card and microSD card tray—Use the SIM card tray ejection tool provided in the box to eject the SIM card tray and insert a new or replacement SIM card. The SIM card tray also includes a place to insert a microSD memory card. This allows you to expand the memory on your S7 up to 200 Gigabytes.

• Noise-canceling microphone—Use in conjunction with the regular microphone to reduce background noise during phone calls. This microphone is also used when you record videos.

• Microphone—You use the microphone when you are on a call and holding your Galaxy S7 to your ear.

• Speaker—The speaker is used when you use the speakerphone function while on a phone call, and it is also used to play all audio, including notifications, music, and audio from videos.

• 3.5mm headphone jack—Plug in your Galaxy S7 or third-party headset to enjoy music and talk on the phone.

• Direct Call—While you are looking at a missed call, reading an SMS (text message) from someone, or viewing someone’s contact information, you can lift your S7 to your ear and hold it there to dial the phone number being viewed.

• Smart Alert—If you have missed calls or messages, when you pick up your S7 from a flat surface, it vibrates.

• Easy Mute—To mute incoming calls and alarms, either place your hand over the screen or turn your S7 over.

• Palm Swipe to Capture—You can capture a screenshot by holding your palm perpendicular to the screen, touching it on the screen and swiping it from left to right or right to left. The captured screenshot goes to the Screenshots album, which you can view using the Gallery or Photos app.

• Pop-up View—Swipe diagonally down from the top-left of the screen to make the app you are using switch the Pop-up view where it reduces in size to a smaller on-screen window. Read more about Pop-up view later in this Prologue in the “Run Multiple Apps on the Screen at the Same Time” section.

1. Press and hold the Power button until you see the animation start playing (not shown).

2. Tap to change your language if needed.

3. Tap Start to continue.

4. Tap a Wi-Fi network you want to connect to during setup. If you’d rather not connect to a Wi-Fi network, tap Next and continue at step 8.

5. Enter the password for the Wi-Fi network using the onscreen keyboard.

6. Tap Connect. Your Galaxy S7 connects to the Wi-Fi network.

7. Tap Next.

8. Check the box to allow Samsung to collect diagnostic and usage data from your S7.

9. Tap Next.

10. Tap Agree after you have read and understood the End User License Agreement (EULA).

11. If you have another Android device (tablet or smartphone) running Android 5.0 (Lollipop) or later, and you want to transfer the data from it to your new phone, select Copy your Google Accounts, apps, and data from another device, tap Next, and follow the instructions on the following screens, or select No thanks, and tap Next to continue.

12. Enter your Google account email address (your Gmail address).

13. Tap Next.

14. Enter your Google account password.

15. Tap Next to continue.

16. Tap Accept to continue.

17. Check this box if you want to back up your phone’s data so that it can be restored to a new Android phone or smartphone in the future.

18. Check this box if you are okay with Google collecting information about your geographic location at any time. Although Google keeps this information safe, if you are concerned about privacy rights, you should uncheck this box.

19. Check this box if you are okay with your phone scanning for Wi-Fi networks even if you have the Wi-Fi radio turned off. This helps improve location accuracy.

20. Tap Next to continue.

21. Select Not Now. Chapter 6, “Email and Text Messages,” covers adding IMAP and POP accounts.

22. Tap Next.

23. Tap Set Up Fingerprint. If you choose not to set any phone protection (not recommended), tap No Thanks, and skip to step 32.

24. Tap Next.

25. Tap PIN to choose to use a numeric PIN as your fingerprint backup unlock method. This example uses a PIN; however, you can choose to use a pattern or password as your fingerprint backup unlock method.

26. Enter a numeric PIN and tap Continue.

27. Re-enter the same numeric PIN and tap OK.

28. Follow the on-screen instructions that walk you through placing your finger on the Home key and then lifting it off the Home key repeatedly until your S7 has fully captured your fingerprint.

29. Choose whether you want notifications to be displayed on the Lock screen while your phone is locked. You can choose to show notifications and their content, notifications with no content, or to hide all notifications.

30. Tap Done.

31. Tap Next on the screen lock confirmation screen (not shown).

32. Enter the email address you used for your Samsung account.

33. Enter your Samsung account password.

34. Tap Sign In.

35. Move the slider to on to enable automatically backing up your data to your Samsung account.

36. Tap Later. For this example we are not restoring a backup from a previous Samsung device. However, if you would rather restore a backup, tap Next and follow the steps, then continue at step 37.

37. Tap to turn the switch on if you want your S7 to use Easy mode. Easy mode uses a simplified Home screen layout and enlarges the text and size of the app icons. You can always disable Easy mode later if you decide it’s not for you.

38. Tap Finish to complete your S7’s setup. Depending on the wireless provider you are using, after you finish the device setup, you may see some extra screens that are specific to your wireless provider.

1. Press the Power button or Home button to wake up your Galaxy S7 (not shown). It is better to press the Home button, especially if you are making use of the fingerprint reader to unlock your S7.

2. Slide your finger across the screen in any direction to unlock your Galaxy S7.

3. Tap a notification, such as a missed call or new email notification, and then swipe the screen to unlock and go directly to the call log or email message.

4. Swipe up from the Camera icon to launch the Camera.

5. Swipe up from the Phone icon to launch the Phone.

6. Swipe the notifications down if you want to see more of them.

7. Swipe the notifications left or right to dismiss them.

• Notification bar—The Notification bar shows information about Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular coverage, as well as the battery level and time. The Notification bar also serves as a place where apps can alert or notify you using notification icons.

• Notification icons—Notification icons appear in the Notification bar when an app needs to alert or notify you of something. For example, the Phone app can show the Missed Calls icon, indicating that you missed a call.

• Widgets—Widgets are applications that run directly on the Home screens. They are specially designed to provide functionality and real-time information. An example of a widget is one that shows the current weather or provides a search capability. Widgets can be moved and sometimes resized.

• App shortcut—When you tap an app shortcut, the associated app launches.

• App folders—You can group apps together in a folder as a way to organize your apps and declutter your screen.

• Favorites Tray—The Favorites Tray is visible on all Home screen panes. You can drag apps to the Favorites Tray so that they are available no matter which Home screen pane you are looking at. You can rearrange or remove apps in the Favorites Tray.

• Launcher icon—Tap to show application icons for all applications that you have installed on your Galaxy S7.

• Tap—To start an application, tap its icon. Tap a menu item to select it. Tap the letters of the onscreen keyboard to type.

• Touch and hold—Touch and hold to interact with an object. For example, if you touch and hold a blank area of the Home screen, a menu pops up. If you touch and hold an icon, you can reposition it with your finger.

• Drag—Dragging always starts with a touch and hold. For example, if you touch the Notification bar, you can drag it down to read all of the notification messages.

• Swipe or slide—Swipe or slide the screen to scroll quickly. To swipe or slide, move your finger across the screen quickly. Be careful not to touch and hold before you swipe or you will reposition something. You can also swipe to clear notifications or close apps when viewing the recent apps.

• Double-tap—Double-tapping is like double-clicking a mouse on a desktop computer. Tap the screen twice in quick succession. For example, you can double-tap a web page to zoom in to part of that page.

• Pinch—To zoom in and out of images and pages, place your thumb and forefinger on the screen. Pinch them together to zoom out or spread them apart to zoom in (unpinching). Applications such as Browser, Gallery, and Maps support pinching.

• Rotate the screen—If you rotate your Galaxy S7 from an upright position to being on its left or right side, the screen switches from portrait view to landscape view. Most applications honor the screen orientation. The Home screens and Launcher do not.

Most applications automatically show the keyboard when you need to enter text. If the keyboard does not appear, tap the area where you want to type and the keyboard slides up, ready for use.

To make the next letter you type a capital letter, tap the Shift key. To make all letters capitals (or CAPS), double-tap the Shift key to engage CAPS Lock. Tap Shift again to disengage CAPS Lock.

As you type, your Galaxy S7 makes word suggestions. Think of this as similar to the spell checker you would see in a word processor. Your Galaxy S7 uses a dictionary of words to guess what you are typing. If the word you were going to type is the middle option in the list of suggestions, tap space or period to select it. If you can see the word in the list but it is not the middle word, tap the word to select it.

To type numbers or symbols, tap the Symbols key. When on the Numbers and Symbols screen, tap the Symbols key to see extra symbols. There are two screens of symbols. Tap the ABC key to return to the regular keyboard.

To enter an accented character, touch and hold any vowel or the C, N, or S key. A small window opens enabling you to select an accented or alternative character. Slide your finger over the accented character and lift your finger to type it.

To reveal other alternative characters, touch and hold any other letter, number, or symbol.

1. Touch and hold the Settings icon.

2. Tap the Microphone icon.

3. Wait until you see the green Microphone icon and start speaking what you want to be typed. You can speak the punctuation, for example “new line,” “question mark,” “exclamation mark,” or “period.”

4. Words that your S7 is not 100% sure of are underlined. If you see an underlined word that is not correct, tap it to change it.

1. While you are typing, touch and hold a word you want to copy.

2. Slide the blue end markers until you have selected all of the text you want to copy.

3. Tap Copy.

4. Touch and hold the word you want to paste over.

5. Tap the Menu icon.

6. Tap Paste to paste what you copied over the word you have selected.

1. Touch and hold the settings key (to the right of the Sym key).

2. Tap to use dictation.

3. Tap to see everything you have previously copied to the Clipboard. If there is text, you can touch it to paste it at the cursor position.

4. Tap to type emoticons (smiley faces).

5. Tap to change keyboard settings, including choosing a new keyboard.

A context menu applies to an item on the screen. If you touch and hold something on the screen (in this example, a button that links to a new page), a context menu appears. The items on the context menu are based on the type of object you touched.

1. Tap the Recent Apps button (to the left of the Home button).

2. Scroll up and down the list of running apps.

3. Tap an app to switch to it.

4. Touch and hold an app icon to see memory and processor usage for each active app.

5. Tap to open the app in split-screen mode. This opens the app so that it only takes up the top half of the screen (not all apps support split-screen mode). See more about running multiple apps at the same time in the next section.

6. Swipe an app left or right off the screen to close it or tap the X on the top right of the app.

1. Touch and hold the Recent Apps button while on the Home screen to see apps that support Multi Window.

2. Tap an app you want to run. The app launches in the top half of the screen.

3. Tap a second app icon to launch it in the bottom half of the screen.

4. Drag the circle up or down to give more or less room to each app.

5. Tap the circle to reveal extra Multi Window features.

6. Tap to swap the position of the apps on the screen.

7. Tap to enable dragging content (such as text or an image) between windows.

8. Tap to minimize the selected app to a small draggable circle on the screen. A blue box indicates which is the selected app.

9. Tap to maximize the selected app to full screen. A blue box indicates which is the selected app.

10. Tap to close the app in the selected window. The selected app has a blue box around its perimeter.

1. From your Mac, browse to http://www.android.com/filetransfer/ and download the Android File Transfer app.

2. Click the Downloads icon.

3. Double-click the app in your Safari Downloads.

4. Drag the green Android to the Applications shortcut to install the app.

1. Visit https://music.google.com/music/listen#manager_pl from your desktop web browser and log in to your Google account if you’re prompted.

2. Click to download Music Manager.

3. Click the Downloads icon.

4. Double-click the app in your Safari Downloads.

5. Drag the Music Manager icon to the Applications shortcut to install the app.

6. Double-click the Music Manager icon in the Applications folder.

7. Skip to the “Configure Music Manager” section to complete the installation.

1. Visit https://music.google.com/music/listen#manager_pl from your desktop web browser and log in to your Google account if you’re prompted.

2. Click to download Music Manager.

3. Double-click the app in your Downloads folder.

4. Skip to the “Configure Music Manager” section to complete the installation.

2. Enter your Google (Gmail) email address.

3. Enter your Google (Gmail) password.

4. Click Continue.

5. Choose where you keep your music.

6. Click Continue.

7. Choose whether to upload all of your music or just some of your playlists. Remember that you can only upload 20,000 songs for free. Skip to step 12 if you chose to upload all music.

8. Check if you also want to upload podcasts.

9. Click Continue.

10. Select one or more playlists of music.

11. Click Continue.

12. Choose whether you want to automatically upload any new music that is added to your computer.

13. Click Continue.

14. Click Close.