How to Set Up and Use the Game Launcher on Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

It's become the norm that people expect their phones to be their handheld gaming consoles as well.In addition to powerful chips and high refresh rate monitors, today's buyers are also looking for a dedicated gaming mode where they can control key settings to optimize their games and improve their gaming experience.

If you own a Samsung phone, you can do it all with the game launcher.Let's see what a game launcher is, how to enable and set it up, and what you can do with it.

What is Samsung Game Launcher?

The Game Launcher is one of the preinstalled Samsung apps that is available on almost every Galaxy device.It helps organize all the games on your phone in one place.Samsung defines Game Launcher as "an all-in-one center for finding things you already love, discovering more games, exploring what's trending, and sharing your game data."

Whenever you download a new game, it will automatically show up in the Game Launcher along with your other installed games.Basically, Game Launcher is a Google Play alternative with a different UI and features.Let's see how you can set it up.

How to Set Up Game Launcher on Samsung

To enable Game Launcher on your Samsung device, go to Settings > Advanced Features and switch to Game Launcher.Now go back to your home screen, pull up the app drawer and you'll see a new game launcher app.Open it, click "Continue" to agree to the terms and conditions, and if prompted, click "Allow" to grant the necessary permissions.

Once you have the Game Launcher enabled, the next step is to set up your gamer profile.Each player profile needs to have a unique name - it cannot be the same as someone else's player name on the Game Launcher.

To create a player profile on the Game Launcher, click the User Settings menu (circle at the top of the main page), then click Edit, choose your avatar and write your player name.Don't worry, you can change your avatar and game name later if you don't like it.

5 things you can do with a game launcher

Game Launcher is easily one of the most useful features on your Samsung phone, given the number of features it has and excellent library management.It can help improve your gaming experience, boost performance, reduce distractions, and give you more control.Here are some things you can do with the game launcher.

1. Show the game only in the game launcher

If you have a lot of games on your phone and don't want to crowd your home and app screens with them, you might instinctively put them all in a separate folder. Gamer Launcher has a better solution: make your games only show up in the launcher.

This way, you've created a dedicated place on your phone to find all your games.Hence, it makes your phone look cleaner and tidy.To do this, open the Game Launcher app, tap More > Settings > Show Game Apps, and select Only in Game Launcher.

2. Game demo without download

Just like the Google Play Store, Game Launcher allows you to try out quick game demos to see if you like a new game enough to download it without actually having to download it.Samsung calls the feature Instant Games, and it's in a tab in the bottom menu bar.

In Instant Games, you'll see suggested games grouped into different categories.You can select games from a specific category to browse from the "Popular Categories" option.Selected categories include: Puzzle, Arcade, Sports, Timekeeping, Cards, and more.

3. Add bookmarks for quick access

You can bookmark apps, web pages or photos for quick access to them in the game launcher.This is useful for you, say, when you're stuck at a level and need to find a YouTube tutorial or guide online.You can bookmark this page and refer to it when needed.

4. Improve the performance of the game with Game Booster

Game Launcher and Game Booster are two different apps, but they work together.The Game Launcher is more of an application management tool, while the Game Accelerator does most of the heavy lifting to boost your device performance in games.

You can adjust your Game Accelerator settings directly from the Game Launcher, so the next time you're ready to launch your favorite game, you can focus more on the game and less on fumbling around with the settings .To do this, go to "More" > "Game Accelerator".

Here are some of the settings you'll find here:

Block during gameplay: Choose to block notifications, navigation gestures, auto-brightness, Bixby, or Edge Panel during gameplay.

Touch Protection Timeout: Change the touch protection timeout when you want to keep the game running but prevent the screen from being touched.Your phone will automatically lock the screen and dim the brightness until you unlock it manually.

An extension of this is the touch protection power saving feature, which reduces the game's frame rate to save battery power when touch protection is on.

Quickbar: Adds a floating quickbar that can be accessed during gameplay.The shortcut bar will let you take screenshots, start screen recordings, lock the screen, and open other apps in the pop-up panel.

5. Access your game notification history

As you probably know, One UI allows you to view your notification history. Game Launcher takes this a step further, showing you all notifications received from games under one section.Just open the app and go to the game notifications section.Here, you can view all notifications by date or by game.

If you want, you can also set game notifications to only show in the game launcher and remove them from the regular notification panel.To do this, go to the Game Notifications section, click the three-dot menu, click Manage Game Notifications, and select In Game Launcher:

Set new records with the game launcher

The Samsung Game Launcher is a really handy place to organize your games and enjoy a more focused gaming experience.Discover new games, track your playtime, access your notification history, and more - all in one app.

However, if you're a more social gamer who enjoys playing with friends, comparing scores, unlocking achievements, and fighting to get your name on the leaderboards, Google Play Games might be better for you.