Indian Galaxy S8, Note 8, and A8 users can quick launch the camera via Always On Display

When the Galaxy S8 and S8+ launched in India, consumers in the country were surprised to see that the quick launch camera shortcut mapped to the power button was disabled on the Indian variants. Samsung did this on purpose, as the Indian government necessitates that three presses of the power button should dial emergency services, but it was most certainly an irritating change despite the company's good intentions.

Well, as it turns out, Samsung has implemented an alternative to the power button shortcut for Indian users in Always On Display (AOD) on the Galaxy S8, S8+, Note 8, or the new Galaxy A8+ (2018). If AOD is set to display the home button, one can double tap the home button to launch the camera app, just like they would if the device had a physical home key. It's something many of you were probably aware of, but it's a new find for us, so we thought we'd write a short tip on how you can enable the feature so everyone can take advantage.

Note: Our previous story said this was a general Always On Display feature, but as our readers have told us, it seems to be a feature only for India, something we have confirmed on our non-Indian devices. That story has now been taken down.

How to enable AOD home button camera shortcut

Step 1: Open the Settings app on the phone and select Lock screen and security

Step 2: Then tap Always On Display.

Step 3: Here, first tap Content to show and select either Home button and clock or information or Home button only, depending on what you want to see on the screen when AOD is enabled.

Step 4: Then, tap Double tap Home button and select the Quick launch camera option.

That's it. You can now double tap the home button when the phone is locked and in Always On Display mode to launch the camera app. On the S8, S8+, and Note 8, you can still hard press the home button to unlock the device.

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

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First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.

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