Use stickers, emoji and more to personalize your AOD
Samsung’s Always On Display (AOD) feature has been around for years. Once limited to the company’s flagships and mid-range phones, you’ll find AOD functionality on all of the best Samsung Galaxy smartphones. This is a handy feature to have as you can check the date/time and know if you have any unread notifications with just a glance at your phone screen. While the implementation was fairly simple when the feature debuted, it continues to improve with each update. You can customize the AOD on your Samsung Galaxy phone with AR stickers, emojis, different clock styles or even use a custom image.
With additional customization options and features, Always On Display is much more useful now than when it debuted on the Galaxy S6 series. If you are the proud new owner of a Samsung Galaxy S22 or own a Galaxy A, Galaxy S, Galaxy Note or Galaxy Fold series phone with 5 UI, 4 UI or UI 3, you’re in luck: you can customize the always-on display to your liking.
AOD customization options vary slightly between different Galaxy smartphones and One UI versions. These steps will work with supported phones running One UI or later, but you may not have access to all features.
How to customize the Always On Display feature on your Samsung Galaxy phone with One UI 5
- Head to Settings > Lock screen > Always-on display. Make sure the feature is enabled; otherwise, the customization options will be grayed out.
- You can first set the Always On Display screen to show only for 10 seconds when you tap the screen: Always, for a scheduled time, or when new notifications arrive.
- I recommend setting up a schedule for the AOD because you won’t need the feature throughout the day. It will help to save battery and be less boring when you sleep.
- Press on clock style to customize the Always On Display clock.
- You can choose from one of nine styles offered by Samsung, use stickers, AR Emoji or even an image from your gallery. The Galaxy Store also offers additional AOD themes. There is also an option to change the clock color from one of the preset options.
- For additional clock customization options, download the Clockface Good Lock add-on which provides access to many new clock faces. You can also create your own clock face, with the customization option even allowing you to select the color of the second hand.
- Activate it Show music information option if you want media playback information to be displayed in Always On Display mode. You can also change the AOD screen orientation to landscape and enable/disable auto-brightness.
- By default, your Galaxy phone will show the Always On Display fingerprint icon. Head to Settings > Biometrics and Security > Fingerprint and modify this behavior of the Show icon when screen is off option.
- The ideal option is to show the fingerprint icon when you tap the screen — this way you’ll know exactly where to keep your finger on the screen when unlocking the phone.
Remember that only unread notification icons will be displayed in the Always On Display screen — detailed notifications will not appear. You can double-tap an icon to open that app directly.
How to download Always On Display themes from the Galaxy Store
- Move towards Settings > Themes and press the DOAC tab in the bottom navigation bar.
- The Galaxy Themes store will display a list: Top Selling, Free, Editor’s Choice, and New Themes.
- You can download and apply the AOD theme you like directly from the Galaxy Store, although most of the good ones are paid. In some themes, you will have the choice to apply the clock and image theme or use the image in Always On Display.
Although you can directly open the Galaxy Store and search for themes, the above process is faster because it only highlights AOD themes.
With so many customization options, you can set up your Galaxy phone’s always-on display the way you like it. The best part is that Samsung continues to improve AOD with each One UI iteration and other regular updates. Once you’ve got your AOD set up, we’ve got some tips to help you polish your Samsung Galaxy phone’s home screen.