What is Samsung Free? (And how to turn it off)
If you have used a modern Samsung Galaxy smartphone you may have seen the Samsung Free app. See what exactly is the mobile app, what is it useful for, and lastly but not least important, how to disable the app on your Samsung phone.
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What is Samsung Free?
Samsung Free is a content aggregator that comes preinstalled on the Galaxy smartphones, the app is also installed whenever the phone is updated in devices running One UI version 3 or higher.
The app replaces the Samsung Daily app — which itself replaced the Bixby Home app, remember that? — and works similarly to the Google Discover service, offering a variety of multimedia content from many sources.
The app offers news feeds (supplied by upday, previously Taboola), podcast episodes, games, and even live-streaming broadcasts — using the free Samsung TV Plus service in selected countries. Similar to the Google alternative, the app can customize the suggestions based on your preferences, but the feature is optional.
It is not possible to manually add feeds to the app, like NextPit's RSS feeds.
How to disable the Samsung Free feature
The Samsung Free app is preinstalled by the manufacturer and cannot be uninstalled — at least without rooting the phone — or even disabled in the Application settings menu. The only option, then, is to disable the feature, which can be done by following these steps:
- Do a long tap on an empty space on the Home Screen.
- Swipe the screen to the right until you reach the left-most page.
- Toggle the switch on top of the page to Off.
The same steps can be followed to replace Samsung Free with Google Discover, if you so prefer.
That's it for our daily tip. Have you ever (knowingly) used the Samsung Free app? Or are you like me and disable the feature as soon as you first turn on a Galaxy Phone? Share your tips and opinion in the comments below!
I didn't even know it was there until today. I followed your instructions, and a bonus was that the Google Search page I couldn't get rid of also disappeared. I guess they were on the same page, but all I ever saw was the Google Search. It would decide I swiped to it even if I didn't think I had. Grrr
I hate this bloat. Even Google's feed, whatever they're calling it now. Give me apps I can delete or install separately, not junk that gets in the way if I don't want it. That way every body gets what they want. I can accept a once or twice invite to the ecosystem, but don't just drown me without consent.
Google's Feed is probably what I thought was Google Search.