How to Use and Customize the Samsung One UI App Drawer

Samsung’s app drawer changed noticeably with One UI 7. The search bar moved to the bottom, and a vertical scrolling layout became available but stays hidden behind a menu most people never open. This guide covers how the One UI app drawer works now, how to set it up the way you want, and how to fix the most common problems, including the missing app drawer icon.

What you need before you start

Most of these changes take a couple of taps, but they depend on a few conditions. Check these first so the menus match what you see on your phone.

• A Samsung Galaxy phone or tablet on One UI 7 or later. Go to Settings > About phone > Software information and look at the One UI version line. One UI 7 shipped on the Galaxy S25 series in early 2025 and reached older flagships from April 2025. One UI 8 arrived on the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Z Flip7 in July 2025, then came to the S25 series from September 2025.
• One UI Home set as your default launcher. If you installed another launcher, Samsung’s drawer settings won’t do anything. Check under Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > Home app.
• An up-to-date One UI Home app. Samsung updates its launcher separately from the main firmware, and drawer fixes often arrive this way. You can check it under Settings > Home screen > About Home screen.
• A Samsung account (if you use the Galaxy Store). The Galaxy Store requires one for any download, including icon packs and Good Lock. Good Lock is also available on Google Play, so you can skip the Samsung account if that’s all you need.
• A few minutes and a clear idea of what bothers you. Some people only want vertical scrolling. Others want fewer apps or an app drawer icon in the dock. Fix the thing that annoys you most first.

On One UI 6 or older, most of the settings below still exist. The vertical scrolling option and the bottom search bar are the two big exceptions, because both arrived with One UI 7.

How the One UI app drawer works now

Samsung calls the app drawer the Apps screen in its menus. That matters, because searching your settings for “app drawer” often finds nothing, while “Apps screen” takes you to the right toggles.

By default, you open the Apps screen by swiping up anywhere on your Home screen. You close it by swiping down or pressing the Home gesture. Your installed apps sit in a grid. A search field sits at the bottom of the screen in One UI 7 and later, close to your thumb. A three-dot menu next to that field holds the sorting and layout options.

The drawer has two sorting modes, and each changes the layout:

• Custom order keeps the classic horizontal pages. You swipe left and right between screens of icons, and you can drag apps anywhere, leave gaps, and build folders in whatever order you like.
• Alphabetical order sorts every app and folder by name. On One UI 7 and later, it also switches the drawer to a single vertical scrolling list, so you flick up and down instead of sideways.

That link between sorting and scrolling direction confuses a lot of people. No separate “vertical scrolling” switch exists in the standard settings. Sorting alphabetically gets you vertical scrolling, and custom order gets you pages.

The menus described here are largely the same in One UI 8. The steps work the same on a Galaxy S25, an S24 updated to One UI 8, or a Z Flip7.

Step 1: Open Home screen settings

Nearly every app drawer setting lives in one place, and you can reach it two ways.

1. From the Home screen: Long-press an empty spot on your Home screen until the editing view appears. Tap Settings at the bottom.
2. From the Settings app: Open Settings and tap Home screen.

Both routes open the same page. You’ll see entries such as Home screen layout, Home screen grid, Apps screen grid, Folder grid, Add new apps to Home screen, Lock Home screen layout, Show Apps screen button on Home screen, and Hide apps on Home and Apps screens. The exact order shifts slightly between One UI versions and devices, but the names have stayed consistent.

Keep this page in mind. You’ll come back to it in most of the steps below.

Step 2: Switch to a vertical scrolling app drawer

This change matters most to people who come from Pixel phones or older Android launchers, where the drawer scrolls as one long list. On One UI 7 and later, it takes four taps.

1. Swipe up on your Home screen to open the Apps screen.
2. Tap the three-dot menu beside the search field at the bottom.
3. Tap Sort.
4. Choose Alphabetical order.

The drawer reorganizes into an A to Z list that scrolls vertically. Folders slot into that list by name as well. A folder called “Banking” sits among your B apps, for example.

Getting the vertical drawer back if it disappears

Many people find the vertical layout reverts to horizontal pages without warning. The usual cause is hand-arranging apps. Dragging an icon to a new spot in the drawer tells One UI that you want a custom arrangement, and custom order means pages. To restore vertical scrolling, repeat the four steps above and pick Alphabetical order again.

When you want vertical scrolling and some control over grouping, use folders instead of manual placement. Name the folders so they land where you want in the alphabet. Some people put a number or symbol at the start of a folder name to push it to the top of the list. Test this on your phone first, because sorting rules for special characters vary by language setting.

Switching back to pages

If you prefer swiping between screens, open the same three-dot menu, tap Sort, and choose Custom order. Your apps return to a paged grid. You can then drag them into any arrangement you like.

Step 3: Change the Apps screen grid

The grid controls how many icons fit across and down each page or row. A denser grid fits more apps on screen at once. A looser grid gives you bigger targets and easier-to-read labels.

1. Open Home screen settings as in Step 1.
2. Tap Apps screen grid.
3. Pick a layout from the options along the bottom. On most Galaxy phones you’ll see 4×5, 4×6, 5×5, and 5×6.
4. Check the preview, then tap Done.

The Apps screen grid is separate from the Home screen grid, so you can run a roomy 4×5 Home screen with a dense 5×6 drawer. That combination suits many people. Your Home screen holds a handful of daily apps at a comfortable size, while the drawer packs in everything else.

Tablets and foldables show different options because the screen is wider. On a Galaxy Z Fold, the cover screen and the main screen can have separate layouts. Look for Cover screen mirroring in Home screen settings. With mirroring on, the inner screen copies your cover screen layout. With it off, each screen keeps its own arrangement.

Step 4: Add the app drawer icon to your Samsung Home screen

People searching for “samsung app drawer icon” usually want one of two things. They either want a visible button that opens the drawer, or they want the drawer back because it seems to have vanished. Here’s how to fix both.

Show a dedicated Apps button

Samsung can place an Apps button on the Home screen, which you can tap instead of swiping up. It’s off by default.

1. Open Home screen settings.
2. Turn on Show Apps screen button on Home screen.
3. Go back to your Home screen. An Apps icon (a grid of dots) now appears, usually in the dock.
4. Long-press the button and drag it if you want it in a different spot in the dock.

The button suits people who struggle with gestures, people who set up a phone for an older relative, and anyone who keeps swiping up by accident when they meant to reach the notification shade. It takes up one dock slot. On a crowded dock, think about whether you’d rather keep a fifth app there.

If the drawer has disappeared entirely

When swiping up does nothing and no Apps button setting appears, your phone probably uses the Home screen only layout. In that mode, every app sits on the Home screen pages and the drawer is switched off. Here’s how to bring it back:

1. Open Home screen settings.
2. Tap Home screen layout.
3. Choose Home and Apps screens.
4. Tap Apply.

The Show Apps screen button option reappears after you switch, because it only makes sense when a drawer exists.

On tablets

On Galaxy Tab devices and the inner screen of the Z Fold series, the taskbar along the bottom includes its own Apps button. It opens the drawer over whatever app you’re using. If you don’t see the taskbar, check Settings > Display > Taskbar and make sure it’s turned on.

Step 5: Organize the drawer with folders

Folders do more than any other setting to make a crowded drawer usable. They work in both custom and alphabetical order.

Create a folder

1. Open the Apps screen.
2. Long-press an app until it lifts off the grid.
3. Drag it onto another app you want in the same group, then let go.
4. One UI creates a folder and offers a name field. Type a name, or keep the suggested one.

To grab several apps at once, long-press an app and tap Select. Tick every app you want in the group, then use the option to create a folder from the selection. This beats dragging fifteen apps one at a time.

Customize a folder

1. Tap the folder to open it.
2. Tap the folder name at the top to rename it.
3. Tap the palette icon to change the folder’s background color. You can pick a preset color or a custom shade.
4. Drag apps out of the folder to remove them. If you remove all but one app, the folder dissolves.

Folder grid in Home screen settings controls how many apps a folder shows per page when it’s open. If your folders hold a lot of apps, raise it so you scroll less.

Folder schemes that actually work

Folders only help if you can find things quickly. Here are three ways to organize them, ranked from simplest to most deliberate:

• By task: Money, Travel, Photo, Shopping, Health. This matches how most people think when they reach for an app.
• By owner: Samsung, Google, Carrier. This works well for preinstalled apps you rarely open but can’t uninstall.
• By frequency: a “Rarely used” folder for everything you open once a month. Combined with alphabetical sorting, this hides a lot of clutter while keeping your regular apps visible.

The Carrier folder deserves a mention. Phones bought through carriers often arrive with extra apps for account management, visual voicemail, and partner services. That includes phones from many prepaid wireless carriers. Lumping them into one folder keeps them out of your way without breaking anything they handle in the background.

Step 6: Hide apps you never use

Some apps you can’t uninstall, and some you’d rather not see while you keep them installed. Samsung lets you hide them from both the Home screen and the drawer.

1. Open Home screen settings.
2. Tap Hide apps on Home and Apps screens.
3. Tap each app you want to hide. Selected apps move to a row at the top.
4. Tap Done.

To unhide an app, go back to the same screen and tap the minus sign on its icon in the hidden row.

Hidden apps still run, still send notifications, and still take up storage. You can open their settings under Settings > Apps at any time. Hiding is purely cosmetic.

Hide, disable, or uninstall?

You have three ways to deal with an unwanted app, and each one does something different:

Action	Where to find it	What happens	Best for
Hide	Home screen settings	Icon disappears, app still runs	Apps you need but rarely open
Disable	Settings > Apps > app name	App stops running, icon disappears, updates removed	Preinstalled apps you can’t uninstall
Uninstall	Long-press icon > Uninstall	App and its data removed	Anything you installed yourself

Not every preinstalled app offers a Disable button. Core system apps usually don’t, and disabling the wrong thing can break features that depend on it. If you’re unsure what an app does, hide it rather than disable it.

Step 7: Tune search in the app drawer

With One UI 7, Samsung moved the drawer’s search field from the top of the Apps screen to the bottom. On tall phones, the thumb reaches the bottom field much more easily. People with years of muscle memory still find it jarring. The Reddit thread asking how to put the search bar back at the top ranks for this topic for a reason.

Can you move the search bar back to the top?

The standard Home screen settings have no toggle to move it. Samsung sometimes adds launcher tweaks to its Good Lock modules before they reach the main settings, so check Home Up (see Step 9) after each update. Don’t count on it appearing, though. The more practical fix is changing how you use search, so its position matters less.

Use search as your main way to open apps

Typing the first two or three letters of an app’s name usually beats scrolling. It works in any sort order and with any grid size. Here’s how to make it fast:

1. Swipe up to open the Apps screen.
2. Tap the search field at the bottom. The keyboard opens right below it, so your thumb barely moves.
3. Type the first letters of the app. Results appear as you type.
4. Tap the result.

The same search also finds settings pages, contacts, messages, files, and content inside some apps. Typing “bluetooth” takes you straight to the Bluetooth settings page, which is often quicker than opening Settings and drilling down.

Control what search returns

If search fills up with results you never want, such as random files or app content, narrow its scope.

1. Open the Apps screen and tap the search field.
2. Tap the three-dot menu in the search view and open Settings.
3. Review the list of apps and sources that search can look through, and turn off the ones you don’t need.

Fewer sources means a cleaner list and usually quicker results. Samsung’s search is a different tool from Circle to Search and Google Lens. Those two identify things on screen or through the camera, while drawer search looks only at what’s stored on your phone.

Step 8: Stop the drawer and Home screen from getting messy again

A tidy drawer stays tidy only when new installs and stray taps don’t undo your work. Two settings handle most of it.

Keep new apps out of your Home screen

By default, One UI places a shortcut on your Home screen every time you install an app. If you prefer a clean Home screen with everything else in the drawer, turn that off.

1. Open Home screen settings.
2. Turn off Add new apps to Home screen.

New apps now appear only in the Apps screen. In alphabetical order, they slot into the right place automatically. In custom order, they’re added at the end, usually on the last page.

Lock your layout

1. Open Home screen settings.
2. Turn on Lock Home screen layout.

This stops icons and widgets on the Home screen from being moved or removed by accident. It’s ideal for kids’ phones and for the phone of a relative who keeps deleting the Phone icon. The downside: while the lock is on, you can’t drag apps out of the drawer onto the Home screen. Many “drag and drop broke” complaints come down to this setting.

Clean up pages in custom order

When you sort the drawer in custom order and delete or move a lot of apps, you end up with gaps and half-empty pages.

1. Open the Apps screen.
2. Tap the three-dot menu beside the search field.
3. Tap Clean up pages.

One UI shuffles your icons forward to fill the gaps, keeping their relative order. Alphabetical order doesn’t need this, because the list rebuilds itself whenever something changes.

Step 9: Go further with Good Lock and Home Up

Good Lock is Samsung’s official customization app, made up of separate modules that each handle one part of the interface. It’s free in the Galaxy Store, though availability has varied by region over the years. Home Up is the module that controls the launcher, so it’s the one that matters for the drawer.

Install Home Up

1. Open the Galaxy Store and search for Good Lock.
2. Install it, then open it.
3. Find Home Up in the module list and tap to install it.
4. Open Home Up from inside Good Lock and turn on the main switch.

What Home Up adds for the drawer

The exact options change between versions, and Samsung sometimes moves a Home Up feature into the main settings after a while. Expect tweaks along these lines:

• Larger grid choices for the Home screen, Apps screen, and folders, beyond the four standard sizes
• Icon label controls, such as hiding app names in the drawer for a cleaner look
• Folder layout and style options with more control than the stock folder grid
• Recents screen styles that change how your recent apps appear (not strictly part of the drawer, but you’ll find it in the same module)

Go through the module menu after installing, because new versions sometimes add drawer settings without much announcement. If a change makes the drawer look wrong, turn off Home Up’s main switch. Your phone falls back to the standard One UI behavior.

Change how the app icons look

The other half of searches for “app drawer icon samsung” comes from people who want different-looking icons, not a button. One UI gives you three official routes.

Galaxy Themes icon packs

1. Long-press an empty spot on the Home screen.
2. Tap Themes.
3. Open the Icons tab and browse. Some packs are free, others are paid.
4. Download a pack and tap Apply.

The icons change on both the Home screen and the Apps screen. Coverage depends on the pack. Most packs theme Samsung’s own apps and popular third-party ones, while less common apps keep their original icon, often placed on a tile so they match the shape.

Theme Park

Theme Park is another Good Lock module. It lets you build your own icon pack from a base shape, background color, and icon style. It suits people who want a uniform look without paying for packs, and it’s handy for matching icons to a wallpaper.

Third-party themes and launchers

Samsung’s launcher doesn’t load the icon packs sold on Google Play for other launchers. To use those, you need a third-party launcher, which we cover below. Stick with launchers and icon packs from Google Play or the Galaxy Store. Skip modified launcher files from random websites, which can carry malware.

App icon badges

Badges are the small dots or numbers that show unread notifications on an icon. They appear in the drawer as well as on the Home screen.

1. Open Home screen settings and tap App icon badges (on some versions, the option lives under Settings > Notifications > Advanced settings).
2. Choose between a plain dot and a number, or turn badges off entirely.

A number badge helps for messaging apps. On a drawer full of shopping and news apps, it creates a lot of nagging red. Turning badges off for specific apps in their notification settings gives you the middle ground.

Turn the app drawer off completely

Some people would rather not use a drawer at all. If you’re coming from an iPhone, including an iPhone 17 with Apple’s App Library tucked behind the last page, an Android drawer can feel like an extra step. One UI handles this natively.

1. Open Home screen settings.
2. Tap Home screen layout.
3. Choose Home screen only.
4. Tap Apply.

Every app now lives on your Home screen pages, much like an iPhone without the App Library. Swiping up no longer opens a drawer. New apps land on the last Home screen page.

This works best for people with fewer than about 40 apps. Beyond that, you’ll swipe through a lot of pages. Folders and search become essential. You can still search by swiping down on the Home screen if you’ve set that gesture to open search, or by using a search widget.

When a third-party launcher makes more sense

One UI Home is a good launcher, and Samsung keeps it tightly integrated with features such as Good Lock, folders, and foldable screen handling. Some people still want things it doesn’t offer, such as gesture shortcuts on individual icons, app drawer tabs, or full icon pack support.

To switch:

1. Install a launcher from Google Play.
2. Open Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > Home app.
3. Select the new launcher.

To go back, return to the same menu and pick One UI Home. Your Samsung layout stays saved in the meantime.

Third-party launchers have real downsides on Galaxy phones. Some Samsung features, including certain gesture and Recents screen behaviors, work best or only with One UI Home. You also lose access to Home Up. If the drawer is the only thing you dislike about your Galaxy, try the steps in this guide before you switch. And if you’re shopping for a new handset because of a launcher you don’t like, launcher quality is worth weighing when you choose a phone. Remember that Samsung’s launcher is easy to replace, while the hardware isn’t.

A setup that works for most people

After all the options, you might want a starting point. This configuration suits most Galaxy owners, and you can adjust from there.

1. Home screen layout: Home and Apps screens
2. Home screen grid: 4×5 for comfortable tap targets
3. Apps screen grid: 5×6 to fit more apps per screen
4. Sort: Alphabetical order, for vertical scrolling and automatic placement of new apps
5. Add new apps to Home screen: Off
6. Folders: Three to six task-based folders, plus one “Rarely used” folder for preinstalled apps
7. Hidden apps: Anything you can’t uninstall and never open
8. Search: Narrowed to apps, settings, and contacts

What you should end up with

Your Home screen holds one page of the apps and widgets you use every day. Swiping up opens a clean, vertically scrolling list where apps appear in alphabetical order, with a few clearly named folders mixed in. New installs drop into the right spot in the list without touching your Home screen. Anything you don’t recognize is either in a folder or hidden. To open almost anything, you swipe up, tap the search field at the bottom, and type two letters, without moving your thumb much at all.

Common mistakes and troubleshooting

My drawer keeps going back to horizontal pages

You’re almost certainly switching to custom order by dragging apps around in the drawer. Re-select Sort > Alphabetical order from the three-dot menu, and use folders instead of manual placement from then on.

I can’t find the vertical scrolling option in settings

It isn’t in Home screen settings. It’s tied to sorting, which lives in the three-dot menu inside the Apps screen. Also check that you’re on One UI 7 or later, because older versions only offer horizontal pages without Good Lock.

Swiping up does nothing

Your Home screen layout is set to Home screen only. Switch it to Home and Apps screens. If that’s already set, check whether a third-party launcher is your default Home app.

The Show Apps screen button option is missing

It only appears when the layout is Home and Apps screens. Switch the layout, then look again.

I can’t drag apps from the drawer to my Home screen

Lock Home screen layout is on. Turn it off, place your apps, then turn it back on if you want the protection.

An app vanished from my drawer

Check Hide apps on Home and Apps screens first, since it’s easy to tap an app there by accident. If the app isn’t hidden, look under Settings > Apps to see whether it was disabled, or check inside your folders. Disabled apps show a “Disabled” label in the app list, and you can re-enable them from the same screen.

My settings changed after a software update

Big One UI updates sometimes reset launcher preferences, especially sorting and grid size. Make it a habit to check Home screen settings and the drawer’s sort order after each major update. Good Lock modules may also need an update from the Galaxy Store before they work properly again.

The drawer feels laggy or icons look wrong

Update One UI Home through Settings > Home screen > About Home screen. If that doesn’t help, open Settings > Apps, find One UI Home (you may need to show system apps through the filter or sort menu), and clear its cache. Clearing cache is safe. Clearing storage resets your Home screen layout, so do that only as a last resort and after taking screenshots.

Icon pack changes didn’t apply to every app

That’s a limit of the pack, not a fault. Galaxy Themes packs only include custom artwork for the apps their designers drew. Try another pack, or build your own in Theme Park.

Where each app drawer setting lives

Setting	Location	What it controls
Sort (Custom or Alphabetical)	Apps screen > three-dot menu	Order of apps and horizontal vs vertical scrolling
Clean up pages	Apps screen > three-dot menu	Removes gaps in custom order
Apps screen grid	Home screen settings	Icons per row and column in the drawer
Folder grid	Home screen settings	Icons per page inside open folders
Home screen layout	Home screen settings	Turns the drawer on or off
Show Apps screen button	Home screen settings	Adds an app drawer icon to the Home screen
Hide apps	Home screen settings	Removes icons from Home and Apps screens
Add new apps to Home screen	Home screen settings	Whether new installs get a Home screen shortcut
Lock Home screen layout	Home screen settings	Prevents moving or removing Home screen items
App icon badges	Home screen or Notification settings	Dot, number, or no badge on icons
Search sources	Apps screen search > three-dot menu > Settings	What drawer search looks through

FAQ

What is the One UI app drawer called in Samsung’s settings?

Samsung calls it the Apps screen. Searching your Settings for “Apps screen” finds the right options, while “app drawer” often returns nothing useful.

How do I get a vertical app drawer on One UI 7?

Open the Apps screen, tap the three-dot menu next to the search field, tap Sort, and choose Alphabetical order. The drawer switches to a single vertical scrolling list. Choosing Custom order brings back horizontal pages.

How do I add the app drawer icon on a Samsung phone?

Go to Settings > Home screen and turn on Show Apps screen button on Home screen. An Apps button appears on your Home screen, usually in the dock. If the option isn’t there, set Home screen layout to Home and Apps screens first.

Why is the search bar at the bottom of my app drawer?

Samsung moved it there in One UI 7 so it’s easier to reach with your thumb on tall phones. The standard settings don’t offer a toggle to move it back to the top. Check Good Lock’s Home Up module after updates, since Samsung sometimes adds launcher tweaks there first.

Can I remove the app drawer completely?

Yes. Set Home screen layout to Home screen only in Home screen settings. All apps then live on your Home screen pages, similar to an iPhone, and swiping up no longer opens a drawer.

Do hidden apps still work?

Yes. Hidden apps keep running, send notifications, and use storage. Hiding only removes their icons from the Home and Apps screens. For real privacy, use Secure Folder.

Does Good Lock work on every Galaxy phone?

Good Lock supports most recent Galaxy phones and tablets running current One UI versions, but availability in the Galaxy Store has varied by region. Module features also change between versions, so the options on your phone may differ slightly from what others describe.

Will a third-party launcher replace the One UI app drawer?

Yes. Setting another launcher as your default Home app replaces both the Home screen and the drawer. You lose Samsung-specific options such as Home Up, but you can switch back at any time under Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > Home app.