I decided to give them a try, and they've actually replaced a few tools I've been using for years. In short, these Samsung apps beat Google's, and here's why you should also start using them.
Samsung Flow
It makes your phone and PC get along
Whenever I saw the Flow app on my Samsung Galaxy app drawer, I used to think it was another ad-filled application from the brand. To send my files over to my PC, I either use Microsoft Phone Link, third-party apps, or send them over to my email or WhatsApp. The whole process was quite clumsy and slow.
Also, for notifications from different social media apps, I had to break my focus, pick up my phone, and interact with each one of them. That is why I tried Flow. What Samsung Flow actually does is link your Galaxy phone to a Windows 10 or 11 PC, or a Galaxy tablet, using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The good thing about Samsung Flow is that it's not account-based either. So there's no need for an extra sign-up process to deal with.
Previously, you could unlock your PC using Samsung Flow, but that feature was taken away after Windows policy changes. It serves as the continuing hub that ties your phone, tablet, and PC together. You can also mirror your phone's screen, share clipboards, sync notifications, and more. There's one catch: Flow only connects to one phone at a time. So it won't work if you share a PC between multiple Samsung Galaxy phones. That's not a deal-breaker for most people. Setting Samsung Flow up only takes a few minutes of your time.
OS
Android
Price model
Free
Samsung Flow shows your phone notifications to your PC, lets you share files between them, and even mirror the entire phone display.
Samsung Reminder
A useful app hiding in plain sight
Here's why so many people never care to use the Samsung Reminder app: it's easy to miss. On some Galaxy phones, Reminder comes pre-installed but never shows up in the app drawer. Samsung's support page says you can launch it from the Calendar app's menu. On newer software, though, it might not be there at all. If the Calendar app doesn't show a Reminder option, you have to manually download Samsung Reminder from the Galaxy Store.
Its best feature is location-based reminders. You can ask Reminder to notify you when you arrive at or leave a place, and you can limit the alert to certain hours. That means "buy groceries" only pings you when you're actually near the store, not when you're stuck in traffic. You just need to ensure that you have turned on your phone's location setting. My phone now pings me at the right place, and I've stopped coming home without the one thing my wife told me to buy.
Speaking of the best stuff, you don't have to open Reminder to use it. It's built into apps like Calendar, Phone, and Messages. For example, you can set a reminder when you reject a call, so you remember to call that person back later, at a time when you are comfortable. You can also use the Share menu in most apps to set reminders, or ask Bixby to set one using your voice.
Samsung Reminder helps you create and manage reminders so you can keep track of tasks, appointments, and other important activities. It can also organize reminders by time or location and send notifications when they are due.
Samsung Notes
My go-to notepad
For notes, I used to use a combination of Google Keep and Samsung Notes. However, I never fully committed to Samsung Notes for my ideas. Little did I know that Samsung Notes has a lot of neat tricks up its sleeve. Whether you want to scribble a quick note, sign a PDF, or mark it up, Google Keep was just out of the picture.
Samsung Notes handled it in about a minute. It lets you import PDFs and annotate them right in the app, and you can export your documents as a PDF too. One of the highlights of Notes is that you can record audio while you type or write, and the recording syncs with your note. Good for lectures and meetings, by the way.
With Samsung Notes, you can also organize notes into folders and subfolders, write by hand, and convert them to text. You can also lock private notes. On newer Galaxy phones, Samsung's Galaxy AI features like Note Assist and Transcript Assist can help summarize and clean up what you've noted. Pretty useful if you have an Ultra phone with an S-Pen.
OS
Android
Price model
Free
Samsung Notes lets you create, edit, and organize notes with text, images, voice recordings, and handwritten content. It also supports S Pen input, PDF annotation, and syncing notes across compatible Samsung devices.
My Files
The file manager that cleans up after you
My Files is another app that I haven't used for some time, but later stuck with it. I just let my Downloads folder grow until my phone warned about low storage.
It sorts your stuff into categories like Images, Videos, Audio, and Downloads. And with new updates, the interface is clean, has a categorized layout, and gives you one-hand access that aligns with One UI design philosophy. It also has a storage analysis tool that detects duplicate, large, and unused files. This way, you can decide what to delete.
My Files isn't limited to your phone's internal storage. When you connect to an external device, you can also manage files on an SD card, a USB drive, and connected cloud storage, all from one place. You can create folders, move, copy, share, and compress files.
OS
Android
Price model
Free
Samsung My Files is a file manager that lets you browse, organize, copy, move, and delete files stored on your phone, SD card, or connected cloud services. It also includes storage analysis, file search, and tools to manage downloads, documents, images, and other files in one place.
Don't uninstall them yet
I used to ignore these four apps without thinking twice on my Samsung Galaxy phone and installed what I feel now are actual duplicates of what Samsung already offers. At this point, they're some of the first things I open and interact with frequently. Samsung Flow keeps my phone and PC in sync, Reminder pings me at the right place, Notes handles everything from scribbled ideas to PDFs, and My Files keeps my storage in check. So before you go ahead and disable these apps thinking they are another bloat app on your Galaxy, spare a few minutes with them. You might be surprised by what you've been missing.
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