7 Best Samsung Galaxy Note 10 S Pen Features and Customization Tricks

Until a few years ago, the S Pen of the Samsung Galaxy Note series was just a pen. That changed with the Galaxy Note 9 when the company introduced Bluetooth in the pen. Fast forward to 2019, the Galaxy Note 10’s S Pen includes not only an accelerometer but also a gyroscope.

And needless to say, all this means that the features and customization tricks have increased exponentially. So, yes, a hum in the air and the business will be taken care of. But the S Pen is not Harry Potter’s wand.

Since Samsung continues to stack features on the S Pen, we thought of bringing together all the tricks and customization features of the S Pen, both old and new. These tricks will not only help you get the most out of this new age pen, but also help you be more productive.

So, without further ado, let’s get started.

1. Control the Screen Like a Boss

This has to be one of the best features of the new S Pen. The new gesture-based Aerial Gestures allow you to do lots of interesting things like changing camera modes, zooming pictures, controlling playback on YouTube and Spotify, or jumping between songs and videos.

However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you’re an avid reader of long articles in Chrome, you can navigate the page slowly with the nifty S Pen.

To switch camera modes, open the camera, tap the S Pen’s button, and rotate the pen vertically like a wand.

Similarly, for media playback, a horizontal movement plays the next video, while a vertical movement changes the volume levels.

You can learn all about it in the S Pen settings. Go to Settings > Advanced features > S Pen and select Air Actions.

Here, tap on any of the apps under the App actions section and you will be able to see all the supported gestures and their related actions.

So the next time you sit down to watch a show on YouTube, pull out the S Pen and let the stylus do the magic.

Pro Tip:

2. Long Press Action

By default, pressing the button on the S Pen opens the Camera. But if you ask me, the camera shortcut is already assigned to the double-press action of the Side key. So why not use this action for something more meaningful?

For starters, you can assign an app like Gmail or your favorite note-taking app to the S Pen’s long-press gesture. So instead of searching for the app, all you have to do is long press the button. Exciting, isn’t it?

Making changes is as easy as 1-2-3. Go to air actions and tap ‘Hold the pen button’. Select your most frequently used app from the list of apps and you’re ready.

3. Convert Handwriting to Text

OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has been a part of apps like Google Keep and Microsoft OneNote for some time now. This year it switched to the Samsung Notes app and the Note 10’s built-in keyboard.

For the Notes app, write a series of words or phrases in highly legible handwriting and tap the words once with your fingers. The converted text will be at the top of your notes.

Alternatively, you can click the Translate text icon in the bottom ribbon to convert your text.

When it comes to the keyboard, the new Samsung keyboard is quite suitable for converting handwriting to text, whether it’s typing a series of WhatsApp messages or typing short keywords into Google Search.

However, you must enable the feature on the keyboard before continuing. Open the Keyboard app’s Settings page and toggle the Pen detection switch.

Did You know

4. Add Shortcuts to Air Command Menu

Air Command has many unwanted apps by default. After all, you can’t use the AR Doodle feature or the Glance feature every day.

The best bet is to replace a few of these apps with the ones you use regularly. For example, if you use the S Pen more in apps like Chrome or Evernote, you can easily change the defaults.

To do this, go to the S Pen settings and tap on Shortcuts. Select new apps from the right panel. This much. Hello, new S Pen.

Pro Tip

5. Fleet in Gallery

Speaking of Glance, did you know that you can view all your videos and thumbnails without even opening them? Well, it seems really possible with the Galaxy Note 10.

Open the Gallery app and hover over an image (or video) with the S Pen; A small thumbnail of the image opens.

Then press the picture to open it in full screen mode. Move to see the image details. Make a horizontal movement to move to the next picture.

6. Edit Video Like a Professional

Have you ever tried to trim a video on the phone? If your answer is yes, you must know how difficult this is thanks to our big fingers. The S Pen makes these tasks easier by giving you finer and more precise points. Whether you’re trimming the ends of a video, joining multiple clips, or adding transitions, this little Pen makes it a lot easier.

And the best thing is that the built-in editing suite of Galaxy Note 10 is excellent and you can add Music, Crop, CC, Filters etc. It includes many features such as

7. Fun with AR Doodle

Finally, don’t forget to have fun with the AR Doodle feature. This awesome S Pen feature uses the camera to help you draw on photos and videos and is gold for Instagram lovers. You can do a lot, from funny stickers to cool doodles.

To open AR Doodle, turn on your camera’s video mode and tap in the top right corner.

The pen is mightier than the sword

The S Pen is one of the main features that sets Galaxy Note devices apart from the rest. And it’s no different with the Note 10 and Note 10+. All you have to do is make a habit of using it as much as possible and gradually things will fall into place.

Next: Confused between Samsung Internet Beta and Google Chrome? Read the detailed comparison below to find the right app.