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What are the features that TouchWiz has that vanilla Android does not have?

This question is similar to What are the features that HTC Sense has that vanilla Android does not have? but for Samsung TouchWiz.

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  • Good question. I'd be inclined to say not much, but then I've barely used stock. Did you have a particular version of TouchWiz in mind?
    – Matthew Read
    Commented Sep 17, 2011 at 23:42
  • 1
    I would like to know about the latest released version
    – Eduardo
    Commented Sep 18, 2011 at 15:12

1 Answer 1

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Home Screen

  • Up to 7 Home screens, with the ability to add and remove screens at will, and drag them around to change the order (pinch zoom the home screen)
  • Customizable dock area at the bottom of the home screen, allowing you to add/remove up to 4 apps.

Apps List

  • 'Screen at a time' sideways scrolling apps list
  • Rounded square backgrounds added to all app icons in the app list (see here)
  • Pre-installed apps (or apps present during the last OS upgrade) are in alphabetical order, new apps are added at the end in the order they're installed.

Home Button

  • Holding the Home button brings up a list of 6 recently used apps, along with a Task Manager button
  • Holding the Back button and tapping the Home button takes a screenshot on the Galaxy S, for the Galaxy SII use Power+Home

Samsung Widgets

These are home screen widgets that Samsung include, and are in a separate Samsung Widgets category pre-Gingerbread, post-Gingerbread they are in the main Android Widgets list with the word "Samsung" under them instead of "Android". Exact widget selection varies depending on OS version and network.

  • AccuWeather Clock
  • Buddies Now (messaging shortcuts for nominated contacts)
  • Calendar Clock
  • Daily Briefing (News, weather, stocks, social media updates)
  • Days (create new entries in the Diary app)
  • Dual Clock
  • Feeds and Updates
  • Program Monitor
  • Y! Finance Clock

Samsung (and other) Bundled Apps

  • Samsung AllShare (DLNA)
  • FM Radio (for models with hardware FM radio)
  • Kies air (shares phone data, and allows control of some phone functions over wifi to a PC web browser, first pre-installed with Gingerbread, available in Samsung app store for older OSs)
  • Memo (notepad app)
  • Mini Diary (create diary pages with daily details, memos and photos)
  • My Files (file manager)
  • Samsung Apps (Samsung's own app store, currently only free content in there, but some of the apps are normally paid or ad-supported on the Android Market)
  • Social Hub (messaging app combining email, SMS and social networks)
  • Task Manager
  • ThinkFree Office

Modified Apps

  • Contacts (History and Activities tabs, linked to Social Hub and social network account updates, showing recent posts by contact and recent interactions with them)
  • Gallery (interface to select either scrolling wallpaper or static, portrait wallpaper)
  • Music (Disc View interface added, allowing sideways scroll through albums showing the artwork on a "CD" shape)
  • Videos (extra codec support DivX/Xvid in particular)

Region specific TouchWiz features

  • Throughout most of Europe and Asia, Samsung's Mobile Tracker feature is included in the Security settings allowing remote password setting, tracking and wiping of mobiles registered on the http://samsungdive.com website

Version specific TouchWiz features

  • Eclair (Android 2.1) - TouchWiz included Wifi tethering as a standard feature before it was brought to the main Android OS in v2.2.

(except where noted, all from TouchWiz 3 on a Gingerbread Galaxy S)

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  • Holding the Back button and tapping the Home button takes a screenshot <-- Are you about this one? Doesn't work on my SGS2 running 2.3.3. Holding the Home button and tapping the Power button does take a screenshot though.
    – sabre23t
    Commented Nov 20, 2011 at 9:34
  • Positive, on my original SGS with 2.3.3 (and for a few versions before that). Obviously Samsung can't make their minds up, more screen shot variations for other devices/versions here android.stackexchange.com/questions/1759/…
    – GAThrawn
    Commented Nov 21, 2011 at 0:48
  • @sabre23t: they forgot to say double tap. :) it works on sgs1, and it should also work on sgs2. hold the back button & double click the home.
    – user10479
    Commented Dec 10, 2011 at 20:03
  • @Petar: Just tried on my sgs2 the hold back button & double click home button. Nope, didn't get screen shot. Get "Voice talk, wake-up command" screen instead (you get the same when just double click home button).
    – sabre23t
    Commented Dec 11, 2011 at 23:16
  • Excellent summary. Now the question is whether or not these would be missed, should we root our devices to "self upgrade" to ICS.
    – Lisa
    Commented Jan 23, 2012 at 5:40

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