Samsung gives you a massive display, but your thumb barely uses any of it. Swipe down for notifications, swipe up for apps, and that’s about it. The rest of the screen just sits there while you shift your grip or reach for a second hand every time you need something beyond those two moves. I spent over a year assuming Samsung had already figured out the best way to get around a phone this size. Then I found a module buried inside their own customization software that turned all that wasted glass into something I actually control.
How I rebuilt the gesture layer from scratch
From edge swipes to multi-finger shortcuts
I’ve always preferred phones around the 6-inch mark. A compact screen means everything stays within thumb’s reach, and for years my Pixel 7 gave me exactly that. Switching to the Galaxy S25 Ultra last year changed things, though. The 6.9-inch display looked stunning, but it was wide enough that even taking a screenshot or launching a split screen felt like a two-handed job.
One Hand Operation+, a module inside Samsung’s Good Lock suite, helped for a while. It places invisible handles along the screen edges, and each one responds to diagonal and straight swipes. A quick flick could capture the screen or launch a split view without stretching across the phone. It worked well, and I relied on it daily until I fractured my thumb and couldn’t swipe at precise angles anymore. Edge gestures need a thumb that moves freely, and mine was stuck in a splint.
Recently, I joined the One UI 9 beta program and noticed Samsung had updated Good Lock’s Home Up module. The July 2026 update (version 18.0.00.24) added multi-finger gesture recognition. Instead of swiping from the edges, you place two, three, four, or five fingers anywhere on the display. Home Up recognizes nine gesture types per finger count, from directional swipes to pinches, taps, and long presses, and any of them can trigger one of 27 actions.
A three-finger swipe down now takes my screenshots, something OnePlus and Xiaomi users have had for years. Four fingers swiping up launches a split screen instantly, replacing the old four-step trip through recent apps. The gestures don’t depend on thumb reach or angle; they just need fingers on glass.
Fine-tuning gestures to avoid misfires
Stopping accidental triggers on a big screen
Multi-finger gestures work great until your fingers land on the screen at the wrong time. Resting two fingers while scrolling or swiping across a customized Samsung home screen can fire a shortcut you never meant to trigger. Home Up’s Gesture settings page has a swipe distance slider that controls how far your fingers need to travel before a gesture registers. It defaults to 90 pixels, and bumping it higher gave me enough room to scroll normally and not accidentally adjust the volume.
That same page also supports continuous swipe actions, which changed how I handle media on this phone. Instead of tapping to raise volume one step at a time, a two-finger swipe up now slides it smoothly from wherever it sits. Brightness works the same way with a horizontal swipe, skipping the need to open the One UI 9 Quick Panel every time. I also mapped a two-finger pinch-in to turn off the screen, so I stop reaching for the side key every time I set the phone down.
Still, some apps needed gestures turned off entirely. The excluded apps list lets you block recognition inside Samsung Notes or Gallery where pinching and multitouch already serve a different purpose. Similarly, leaving full-screen mode toggled off keeps gestures from interrupting YouTube or games mid-session. The keypad toggle handles calls, since resting fingers on the dialer would otherwise trigger whatever shortcut sat on that finger count.
Home Up also includes vibration and a glow effect to confirm gestures are actually registering. Vibration sends a quick haptic pulse the moment a gesture registers, and the glow leaves a brief visual trace on screen. I kept both on during my first week to learn which finger placements triggered actions and which ones the phone ignored. Once I trusted the sensitivity setting, I turned the glow off and kept vibration as a quiet confirmation.
Good Lock does what Samsung didn’t
Home Up turned a phone I was fighting into one that finally works with my hands. A few fingers anywhere on the glass now handle what used to take edge swipes and two-handed reaches. Samsung also lets you remap the side key and add back-tap shortcuts through RegiStar, so there’s more to dig into. If your Galaxy feels like it was built for bigger hands than yours, Good Lock has the tools to close that gap.
8.5/10
- SoC
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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
- Display
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6.9-inch Dynamic Super AMOLED 2X
- RAM
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12 or 16 GB
- Storage
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256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra isn’t a massive leap in specs compared to the previous generation Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but it boasts improvements in every aspect. The major differentiators are two features that will appeal to power users and content creators, called Privacy Display and Horizon Lock.