3 must-try features if Galaxy Z Fold 8 or Fold 8 Ultra is your first Samsung phone or foldable

In essence, most mobile devices fulfill the same basic functions, but the user experience can differ significantly across smartphone models and operating systems.

If the Galaxy Z Fold 8 or the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is your first Samsung handset, you'll probably navigate the new form factor and One UI with relative ease, as long as you've used a smartphone before.

However, your experience with other devices will only help you so far. If you're unfamiliar with Samsung phones or the Galaxy Z series, you might miss a few fantastic features that are unique to Samsung's One UI software, Z foldable phones, or Android OS.

Below, we have compiled a few great Samsung/Android features that we think you should know about if this is your first time using a Samsung device or foldable.

Some of these may seem familiar if you're an Android user, or they may seem very alien if you've transitioned from iOS. Let's start with:

This might be one of Android's most underrated features. You see, platforms like iOS give you a binary choice for app notifications. You can either turn an app's notifications on or off, but there's no granularity.

Say you want to keep receiving delivery notifications from your delivery app but without getting any promotional messages from them. Some apps have notification settings built-in, but Samsung's One UI lets you control that from the home screen with incredible ease. Here's how:

First, enable the option: Go to Settings > Notifications> Advanced settings > turn on Manage notification categories for each app.

Here's the fun part: whenever you receive a notification you want disabled, press and hold it. One UI will help you navigate precisely to the notification category toggle you should turn off to stop receiving those types of notifications without turning off notifications for the app entirely.

One of the best things about the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra is the ability to multitask with ease by launching up to three apps side by side with a few gestures.

It's called Multi window, and nobody does this better than Samsung. One of the best things about it is how easy you can launch a second app when one is already open:

To make sure you have these shortcuts turned on, open Settings > Advanced features > Multi window > turn on Swipe for split screen.

As you will likely notice, there's also an option to swipe for pop-up view. Try to experiment with the different options and find your ideal configuration.

By default, One UI mirrors the Galaxy Z Fold 8/8 Ultra's cover screen to the main screen. Any changes you make to the cover screen app shortcuts and widgets will also apply to the inner foldable panel and vice versa.

It sounds convenient because, in theory, you don't have to organize your home screen twice / once for each display.

However, in practice, this doesn't quite work because the cover and main screens don't have the same orientation and aspect ratio. Organizing one home screen usually disorganizes the other.

Thankfully, you can change this behavior and have separate home screen layouts for each display.

To do this: Pinch the home screen > Settings > Turn Cover screen mirroring off.

Samsung's One UI has numerous other hidden features and useful options, some of which are again unique to foldable phones; be sure to try them out!