Samsung loves to embed its own apps and services on devices. This can lead to some confusion when you get a new Galaxy device and are faced with unknown things. "Samsung Free" is prominent, so what is it?
If the name "Samsung Free" sounds unfamiliar to you, you may have recognized "BIXBY HOME" or "Samsung Daily". All these services are more or less the same. "Samsung Free" is just the latest brand.
BIXBY HOME was introduced on the Samsung Galaxy S8 series. The concept is similar to the Google Discover Dashboard on Pixel phones . It's essentially a news feed that lives on the left home screen panel in Samsung's default launcher.
Samsung Daily replaced BIXBY HOME in 2019, keeping all the same features. Samsung has been slowly dialing down its use of the BIXBY brand, and this move was part of that.
That brings us to the latest iteration, Samsung Free, which was introduced alongside a UI 3.0 in late 2020. As with the other rebrands, the functionality is pretty much the same. It has been given a new coat of paint.
Samsung Free is best described as a content aggregator. Content includes news articles, podcasts, live TV, and even games. All of this lives in four tabs on the home screen page to the left.
The first tab is "view", and it shows the free one. Samsung TV PLUS Service. This is the company's live TV service that comes on your smart TVs and mobile devices. It's a mix of typical cable TV channels and some proprietary broadcast-only channels.
The "Listen" tab is all about podcasts. It's organized into a bunch of different categories with popular and recommended podcasts in each. The Listen tab also includes a built-in podcast player. You can even subscribe to podcasts, so you don't need an additional app.
The "Read" tab is where you'll find articles found around the web. It is a similar concept to Google discover Feed, but with fewer customization options. You can view trending stories in several different categories.
The last tab is "Play", and it is for games. The good thing about these games is that you don't have to install anything to play them. All you need is the "game launcher", which is already on your Galaxy device. You can quickly browse by category and jump to one to kill some time.
If all this does not interest you, it can be easily disabled. That is, if you even want to use Samsung's built-in launcher. Using a third-party launcher is one way you can get around Samsung Free, but that's a bit extreme if you just like Samsung's launcher otherwise.
First, touch and hold a blank space on the home screen.
The home screen will zoom out, and you can slide to the page on the left, which is free Samsung.
Simply toggle the switch at the top of the page OFF.
That is all! Samsung Free will no longer be on the home screen page on the left. You can bring it back to your Samsung Galaxy Home Screen at any time by following the same steps and activating the switch.
