Power users have long tinkered with their devices. Yet few changes deliver the immediate payoff that one Samsung owner discovered after he disabled the factory navigation gestures on his Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The phone felt sluggish in daily use. Not because of the processor. The issue sat in how he reached every essential command. So he rebuilt the entire interaction model around his thumb. The result? A device that responds faster to his habits.
MakeUseOf detailed the experiment in an article published just yesterday. Writer Digvijay Kumar had moved from a compact Pixel 7 to the 6.9-inch S25 Ultra. One-handed operation turned into a constant stretch. Notification shade pulls required shifting his grip. Palm swipes for screenshots became awkward. Each small delay added up across hundreds of interactions per day.
“I didn’t need a faster phone. I needed a faster way to get around it,” Kumar wrote. The fix came from an overlooked module inside Samsung’s Good Lock customization suite. One Hand Operation+ lets users draw invisible handles along the screen edges. Each handle accepts multiple swipe types: short and long versions of diagonal up, diagonal down, and straight across. Twelve distinct triggers. No visible buttons cluttering the display.
He assigned a short diagonal swipe from the right edge to capture screenshots. A long diagonal from the left pulls the notification panel. Another quick swipe below it opens Quick Settings directly. Flashlight sits on a long straight swipe from the right. Split-screen mode, once a four-step process involving recent apps and menus, now happens with one fluid diagonal motion. The difference feels immediate.
Good Lock itself requires a download from the Galaxy Store. The One Hand Operation+ module installs from within the app. It works only on devices running the full One UI experience. Budget models with the stripped-down One UI Core lack support. That limitation excludes many A-series and M-series owners who might benefit most from one-handed tweaks.
Default settings hide much of the power. Long swipes start disabled. Users see just six actions until they flip the switch. Enabling them doubles the options. Another buried toggle called Quick action changes behavior further. Actions now trigger the moment the thumb crosses a distance threshold instead of waiting for the finger to lift. That single change removes perceptible lag.
The module offers more than remapped navigation. Quick Tools creates a floating panel with brightness and volume sliders, media controls, and toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, flashlight, and screen recording. One swipe. No trek to the top of the screen. Task Switcher produces a searchable floating list of recent apps. Quick Launcher pins favorite applications in a grid that appears without returning to the home screen. These tools sit quietly until discovered.
But the setup carries a cost. One Hand Operation+ stores configurations locally with no built-in backup or export. Factory resets or new devices force complete recreation of every handle position, swipe direction, and assigned action. Kumar advises taking screenshots of the finished layout. The images become the only reference when rebuilding from scratch.
Samsung itself defaults to three-button navigation on new devices. A report from Android Police last August revealed the company tested a setup wizard choice between buttons and swipe gestures for a future One UI 8.5 release. The change has not yet reached stable builds. Many users still never switch.
Discussions across forums show divided opinions. Some insist taps beat swipes for raw speed. A How-To Geek piece from April argued that fixed-target button presses avoid the mental overhead and timing sensitivity of gestures. “The simple, fixed-target taps you get with three-button navigation are a faster and less mentally tiring way to interact,” the author wrote. Repeated back commands illustrate the gap. Ten button presses happen with minimal movement. Ten gesture swipes demand more physical effort and accumulate small delays.
Yet Kumar’s approach sidesteps that debate. He kept the underlying navigation but layered custom gestures on top. The phone still uses Samsung’s default system underneath. The new triggers simply invoke common actions from more reachable positions.
Recent complaints on Samsung community boards highlight friction with One UI 6.1 and later. The company removed certain gesture options, including “Swipe from bottom” and visible hints. Users must install the NavStar module from Good Lock to restore them. That extra step frustrates those who expect full control in settings. One forum post from early 2024 noted the features returned only after enabling extra gesture strings in NavStar and adjusting phone navigation preferences.
Performance data remains anecdotal. No independent lab has benchmarked Kumar’s specific configuration against stock gestures. Still, the logic holds. Reducing hand repositioning and menu navigation cuts total interaction time. On large phones the advantage grows. Reach matters.
Power users already know Good Lock transforms Samsung devices. The suite includes modules for lock screen tweaks, notification management, keyboard customization, and more. One Hand Operation+ stands out for its direct impact on daily flow. It turns the edges of the display into a personal command center.
And the broader trend continues. Android gesture navigation has improved since its debut, yet it still requires learning curves and occasional misfires. Timing-based inputs create variability. A swipe too short registers as home instead of recents. A hold that’s slightly too brief fails to trigger the app switcher. Button navigation eliminates that uncertainty.
Kumar never abandoned gestures entirely. He refined them. The custom handles respond exactly where his thumb rests naturally during one-handed use. The phone now matches his physical posture rather than forcing him to adapt to it.
That principle applies beyond Samsung. Similar customization exists on other Android skins through apps and accessibility services. Yet Samsung’s Good Lock delivers the cleanest integration and broadest system-level access. No third-party overlay. No battery drain from constant accessibility monitoring.
Of course, not everyone needs this level of adjustment. Casual users may prefer the simplicity of stock options. For those who live on their phones, however, the experiment proves something valuable. Default settings rarely optimize for individual habits. The fastest phone is often the one reshaped around how you actually hold it.
Recent X posts echo the sentiment. Users continue sharing touch gesture tips that make Galaxy devices feel quicker. One thread highlighted eight specific gestures that reduce reliance on menus. Another complained about lingering delays in One UI 7 gesture response compared to competitors. The conversation evolves, but the core frustration persists for large-screen owners.
Kumar’s setup won’t suit every hand size or workflow. It does demonstrate the depth available to those willing to explore beyond settings menus. Twelve gesture slots. Floating control panels. Instant split screen. The phone stops fighting the user and starts anticipating.
Perhaps future One UI versions will surface these options during initial setup. Until then, the tools exist for anyone patient enough to assemble them. The payoff arrives not in benchmark scores but in those dozens of tiny moments when the device simply does what you want without extra thought or movement. Faster. More natural. Yours.
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