Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Notification Settings That Can Improve Your Experience

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By Shikhar Mehrotra/Dec. 11, 2022 9:00 am EST

Interacting with the 7.6-inch display of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 is quite an experience. Although the smartphone has a regular screen on the exterior, the internal foldable display has many advantages, with more space for notifications being one of them. When you take the Fold 4 in hand, unfold it, and swipe down from the top, you'll realize that Android's notification shade doesn't feel the same anymore.

Standard phones like the iPhone 14 and the Galaxy S22 are 2.81 inches and 2.78 inches wide from left to right respectively. However, the Fold 4 display measures around 5.1 inches in width, nearly double the size. Hence, when you swipe down from the top of the display to view your notifications, you get bigger app tiles with clearer text. It's not just that the notifications look better — you have more space to react to them, too.

There are also specific Galaxy Z Fold 4 notification settings that can improve your notifications even more. How about making the notifications light up the corner of the display, or making certain words appear in a different color than the rest? If you're heading to a meeting or a casual gathering where you don't want any disturbances, you can turn off notifications entirely. By tweaking specific notification settings, you can unlock the best of your Galaxy Z Fold 4.

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As the name suggests, Edge lighting on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 makes the edges of your phone light up in various styles and colors whenever you get a notification. Instead of blocking your view, it notifies you by lighting up the display's sides. By default, many Android notifications pop up as a rectangular box on top of your screen, which could be very annoying when watching your favorite web series or playing a video game. You can turn pop-ups off, but Edge lighting solves the problem easily and elegantly.

On the official support page, Samsung notes that Edge lighting is on by default. You'll very likely see it while setting up your device for the first time. To customize it, follow the steps given below.

1. Swipe down from the top of your Fold 4's display and tap on the Settings icon, then select Notifications > Notification Settings.
2. This will open the notification menu with all related options. Tap on Brief pop-up settings.
3. Tap on Edge lighting style and explore the different lighting styles.
4. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 has 12 lighting styles, including basic, wave, glitter, and fireworks.
5. Once you have selected the style, tap on the Color tab in the middle to change the color of the light.
6. Finally, adjust the transparency and the duration of the lighting effect from the Advanced tab on the right.
7. Tap on Done at the bottom right corner and enjoy receiving notifications via Edge lighting.

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Since you've set up Edge lighting, you should know about related settings that can improve your experience further. If you wish to see Edge lighting notifications even when your Fold 4's screen is off, head back to Settings > Notifications, tap Brief pop-up settings, and enable the Show even while screen is off option. If you want only a few apps to show Edge lighting notifications, return to Notifications and deactivate unwanted apps in the Included apps menu.

Another interesting setting that can help you screen certain notifications from others is Color by keyword. Throughout the day, you probably receive dozens of updates from all your apps, right? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to quickly review the notifications related to a particular keyword? You can do just that on your Galaxy Z Fold 4.

1. Head back to the Brief pop-up settings menu and tap on Color by keyword.
2. Enter a word in the text field. For instance, let's assume you wish to highlight all the notifications that contain the word "pizza." So, enter "pizza" in the text field.
3. Tap on the solid circle towards the right and select a color. (Obviously, red for pepperoni.)
4. Now, whenever you get a notification with the word "pizza" in it, the notification tile will appear in the color you selected. 
5. For the feature to work, the notification text and the word you enter should match.

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If you're about to attend a meeting, watch a movie, or spend some time with your family and don't want to be interrupted by notifications, you can turn them off (via Samsung).

1. Slide down from the top of your Fold 4's screen and tap on the Settings icon, then Notifications.
2. Locate and tap on Do not disturb.
3. Select Hide notifications and enable Hide all.
4. Go back to the previous menu and toggle on Do not disturb if you didn't already.
5. In the same menu, you'll find an option to hide notifications on a schedule.
6. You can add exceptions to Do not disturb if needed. The exceptions can be anything, such as certain calls, messages, and alarms.

On the contrary, if you want to stay focused and keep notifications from social media apps away, you can select them individually.

1. Head to Settings > Notifications.
2. Under Recently sent, tap on More.
3. At the top, tap Most recent and select All. You'll see the list of all the apps on your Galaxy Z Fold 4 in order by how recently they've sent a notification.
4. Disable notifications for the apps you want by sliding the toggle switch towards the left. If you made a mistake, you can re-enable notifications from this same menu by sliding the toggle to the right.
5. You won't receive notifications from the apps you've disabled anymore.

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By default, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 displays the app icons for the three most recent notifications. For those who receive too many notifications, knowing about the notification icon settings might help organize them. Follow these steps to change the settings to your liking.

1. Open Settings > Notifications from the app drawer or notification shade.
2. Tap on Advanced settings.
3. Now, tap on Show notification icons to discover more options.
   1. All notifications: This option shows all the notification app icons at the top left.
   2. 3 most recent: This option will show the icons of the most recent apps that pinged you.
   3. Number of notifications only: If you do not wish to see app icons, select this option. It will only show the number of notifications you've received. You can swipe down from the top to view them.

In the Advanced settings menu, you'll also find the Suggest actions and replies for notifications option (via Samsung). This feature suggests actions or replies to the messages or notifications you receive. Although it's hit-and-miss, you may like the feature and keep it enabled on your Fold 4. Additionally, you can set reminders if you feel that you miss important notifications quite often. This setting is under Notification reminders.