I didn't like the Galaxy S25's split notifications, so I shut them off — here's how

I like a lot of what Samsung has done with Android 15. It’s added several helpful wrinkles to One UI 7, like an alphabetized, vertical-scrolling app drawer, customizable widgets, and a Now Bar that draws out the best of Apple’s Dynamic Island without sitting quite as prominently at the top of the display. However, it’s done something else as part of the One UI 7 refresh — something I can’t stand. Samsung has split its notification shade from its quick settings dropdown, and it’s broken my brain a little bit.

Wait, what’s wrong with that?

For some people, splitting the quick settings dropdown from the notification shade won’t be an issue. In fact, they might have been begging Samsung for this all along. After all, it’s the same way that Apple handles its menus on iOS, so maybe Samsung is just trying to draw in more iPhone converts. I can completely understand that and don’t necessarily disagree with it, but as a Pixel user, the change isn’t working for me.

At this point, I’ve had the Galaxy S25 Ultra in my pocket for about two weeks. Usually, that’s enough time for me to acclimate to most software tweaks and modifications. It’s long enough for me to adjust to things like the volume rocker sitting above the Gemini button rather than below it or how largely uncomfortable the flat titanium frame is to use with one hand, but for whatever reason, I can’t fall in love with Samsung’s split menus. I’ve opened the wrong one more times than I can count, and it’s just as frustrating now as it was the first time.

So, like the truly determined Android fan that I am, I reverted to my old ways — here’s how.

Here’s how to get Samsung’s old notification shade back

Thankfully, switching from Samsung’s new split dropdown setup back to its original, unified layout isn’t difficult. Well, at least not if you know exactly where to look. I’ll admit that I spent entirely too long sifting through the main settings app, looking up everything from notifications to home screen layouts to always-on features (I got desperate) to find the right toggle to flip or box to check. As it turns out, I was barking up the wrong tree — er, looking at the wrong menu.

See, instead of putting its dropdown settings into the settings menu as you’d expect, Samsung put them in the dropdown menu itself. When you pull down your quick settings — which you do from the top right corner of your display — you’ll see a few icons lined up across the top of the menu. One is a settings cog, another is a power button, and the third is a pencil. In all my infinite wisdom, I assumed that the pencil icon had something to do with the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen. It made sense to me since I’ve been spending time with the only Samsung flagship with a stylus.

But anyway, as it turns out, that pencil icon was the secret to fixing my headache all along. All I had to do was tap on it, which opened the ability to reorganize my quick settings menu, and then tap on the Panel Settings button, which lives at the top left corner of the display. Then, you can jump back and forth between the Separate and Together options, splitting and uniting your notifications and settings whenever you want. Here’s a quick walkthrough of the screenshots to get to Samsung’s panel settings:

By the way, a few of Samsung’s other settings will change depending on whether you choose Together or Separate. If you split your shades, you can choose between accessing your quick panel from the left or right sides of the display — presumably to help the lefties out there. Should you opt to unite your panels, you can choose which six settings appear above your recent notifications, giving you a little more control without opening the entire menu.

Oh, and if you haven’t yet picked up a Samsung Galaxy S25 device to try One UI 7 for yourself, you can do so at the widgets below: