When you get a new phone, you probably customize the things you notice first — your apps, wallpaper, maybe even your ringtone. Navigation gestures are different. They come preconfigured, and most of us assume they’re already doing their job. I thought the same thing until I moved to a larger phone.
What changed after switching to a bigger phone
One-handed use became a daily struggle
I’ve always preferred smaller phones. Being able to use a phone comfortably with one hand just feels more natural to me, and for years, my Pixel 7 gave me exactly that. When I switched to the Galaxy S25 Ultra last year, the screen grew from 6.3 inches to 6.9, and that extra size changed the way I used my phone every day.
Simple actions now need a second hand or a grip adjustment. Pulling down the notification shade meant stretching my thumb to the top of the display or shifting the phone in my hand. Taking a screenshot with Samsung’s palm swipe gesture wasn’t good either. On a phone this wide, it was practically a two-handed gesture. So I almost always ended up reaching for my other hand or setting the phone down first.
To be fair, none of those actions took very long on their own. The thing is, I repeated them so many times throughout the day that they slowly wore on me. I didn’t need a faster phone — I needed a faster way to get around it.
How I rebuilt navigation around my thumb
That faster way turned out to be something Samsung already makes but doesn’t exactly advertise. One Hand Operation+ is a module inside Good Lock, Samsung’s customization suite, and I stumbled across it while looking for a one-handed solution for a phone this size. It doesn’t come preinstalled, though. I had to download Good Lock from the Galaxy Store first, then install the module from inside it.
What surprised me was how flexible it is. Instead of being limited to Samsung’s standard navigation gestures, I could place invisible handles along both edges of the display. Each handle responds to three swipe directions: diagonal up, diagonal down, and straight. And every direction has a short and long version. Twelve gesture slots, no extra buttons on the screen.
A short diagonal swipe on the right now takes a screenshot. The notification panel opens with a long diagonal swipe on the left, and a short one below it jumps straight to Quick Settings. I put the flashlight on a long, straight swipe on the right. Split screen was probably the most satisfying change. It once meant opening Recents, tapping the app icon at the top of the card, and selecting the option from a menu. Now it’s a single diagonal swipe. Four steps down to one, all from where my thumb naturally rests.
Good Lock only runs on devices with the full version of One UI. Most budget A and M series phones ship with One UI Core, a stripped-down alternative, and those don’t support it.
The settings most people miss
You’re only seeing half until you change this
When you first install it, long swipes are turned off, which means each handle only recognizes short swipes, and you start with six gesture slots instead of twelve. Turning them on doubles that number and opens up a second layer of actions behind the same handles. What helped was enabling the Quick action option in Gesture settings. Instead of waiting for me to lift my finger, long-swipe actions were triggered the moment my thumb crossed the distance threshold.
One Hand Operation+ also does far more than remap gestures. Quick Tools, for example, opens a floating panel with brightness and volume sliders, media controls, and quick toggles for things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, flashlight, and screen recording. One swipe and you have a compact control center without pulling down from the top of the screen. Task Switcher and Quick Launcher follow the same idea. The first pulls up a floating list of recent apps with a search bar, and the second gives you a pinned grid of apps you can open without going back to the home screen.
I didn’t discover any of them on the first day. They’re tucked away behind the more familiar options, but once you find them, you start using your phone differently.
Keep a record of what you’ve built
Unlike other Good Lock modules, One Hand Operation+ doesn’t have a built-in backup or restore option. If you factory reset your phone or switch to a new device, you’ll have to set up every gesture mapping, handle position, and swipe setting again from scratch. There’s no way to export your layout or sync it through Samsung Cloud. So once you’re happy with your setup, take a screenshot of it. That way, you’ll at least have a reference when you need to rebuild.
- OS
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Android
- Developer
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Good Lock Labs
- Price model
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Free
Good Lock is a powerful customization suite for Samsung Galaxy devices, offering a collection of modules and plugins that let you personalize almost every aspect of your phone. With Good Lock, you can tweak the lock screen, home screen, navigation bar, keyboard, notifications, and more to match your style and workflow.
