Unlocking Hidden Features: Discover the Secret Menu in Your Samsung Phone’s Gallery App!

Samsung Gallery offers a plethora of features, but many remain hidden from plain sight. While users may be aware of functions like Audio Eraser, Generative Edit, and video editing tools, several capabilities are tucked away within the app without obvious access points.

These functionalities are concealed in a secret area known as Gallery Labs, a feature that many Galaxy phone users are unaware of.

Gallery Labs contains experimental features within the Samsung Gallery app, and it’s definitely worth exploring. To access it, follow these steps:

1. Launch the Samsung Gallery app and click the menu icon in the lower right corner.
2. Select Settings.
3. Choose About Gallery.
4. Tap the version number 10 times in succession.

Once you receive a message stating “[Labs] Gallery Labs is enabled,” return to the Settings menu and select the newly available Gallery Labs option. Here, you’ll find an extensive list of features categorized by One UI versions — ranging from One UI 8.x to older versions.

Galaxy smartphones come equipped with Secure Folder and Private Album features to help users hide sensitive photos and videos. However, both options require manual relocation of files whenever new content is added. With the Album entry-lock feature from Gallery Labs, you can simply lock specific albums with your PIN or fingerprint.

Select an album, then tap the three-dot menu and choose Lock album. A padlock icon will appear on the album’s cover, and you’ll need to verify your identity each time you access that album. Although convenient, this method is less secure than using Secure Folder, as other apps can still access those files.

One common gripe with Samsung Gallery’s built-in slideshow feature is that it cycles through all images in an album. If you wish to display just a handful of selected photos, you often face the inconvenience of excessive swiping or the tedious task of creating a new album.

With Gallery Labs, you can now initiate a slideshow with selected images. Once this option is enabled, simply choose the photos and navigate to More > Extended options > Start slideshow.

The “Create” menu in Samsung Gallery allows users to make GIFs, collages, and short movies. Gallery Labs provides an additional feature that enables you to save selected images as a PDF. By activating this option, a new PDF creation tool will appear. Choose your images, and the app will compile them into a PDF document.

This PDF can be accessed within Samsung Notes for further editing, reordering pages, or saving as a note, offering a convenient alternative to third-party scanning apps.

Navigating through videos in Samsung Gallery generally involves dragging your finger along the filmstrip, which can be cumbersome. Fortunately, the Gallery Labs offers a more user-friendly solution. By enabling the Video player mode on filmstrip and selecting Legacy video seekbar, you can switch to a traditional seek bar featuring a play/pause functionality. This small change can significantly enhance your experience when navigating lengthy videos.

Within the primary Photos tab, Samsung Gallery organizes images quite differently. If you’re browsing through extensive Camera or Screenshot albums, locating specific images can be challenging, as the photos are cluttered together with no clear organization. While you can sort items by date or name, navigating through a dense collection can be overwhelming.

Activating the Timeline in album feature organizes images by dates, making it easier to locate pictures from particular days, months, or years.

Samsung Gallery sometimes plays video previews during scrolling, and this inconsistency can be particularly frustrating. It can drain battery life and affect scrolling performance, especially on older devices. Disabling the Video preview on picture list option prevents these automatic previews from playing, allowing only static thumbnails to appear instead.

Diving into Gallery Labs is akin to exploring Android’s Developer Options. You’ll encounter various selections — some technical and others practically useful. It’s surprising that features like album locking and PDF creation are hidden away, yet they’re accessible and functional. Gallery Labs is regularly updated, so it’s advisable to revisit it periodically. Should you feel overwhelmed by your changes, the Clear settings changed in Labs function allows you to reset all modifications at once. Alternatively, you can completely disable the Gallery Labs for a fresh start.

Furthermore, such hidden features aren’t exclusive to the Gallery app. Similar menus can be found in Wi-Fi settings and the My Files application, making those areas worth exploring as well.