Many expected the new Samsung Galaxy S8 to rock massive design changes, but what took many by surprise is the relocation and placement of the fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone.
When the S8 debuted with on-screen keys, it was an official confirmation that the 2016 Samsung Galaxy S7 will be the last S series device to come with physical buttons. The new change on the S8 has meant that buyers of the phone get a huge Infinity Display with close to zero bezels. The result of this is that you will no longer need to press buttons (apart from side buttons) in order to interact with the phone, rather, you only need to tap.
However, some geeky person at XDA Developers forum wants you to enjoy the same Galaxy S8 experience on your year-old Samsung Galaxy S7 if at all you fancy the new design. Using an app called Fingertouch, you can now turn the fingerprint scanner on your Galaxy S7, which also doubles as a physical home button, into a capacitive home button.
While this will not move the button to the screen, it will let you tap the same physical home button instead of pressing it and get the same results that you’d get when tapping the on-screen home button on the Galaxy S8. The application, once installed, runs as a service in the phone’s background and as such, you’ll notice a permanent notification in the panel. This notification gives you quick access to the service, where you can easily pause or completely disable it. Since Samsung Galaxy S7 is already updated to the latest Android 7.0 Nougat, you can also tap and hold the notification and from the settings that pop up, you can disable it. This will remove the stubborn notification from the notification area but keep the app running.
This app also comes with a Pro version where Galaxy S7 users can easily take advantage of the whitelist feature, allowing them to auto-disable the Fingertouch service for specific apps. This makes sure that you don’t have to constantly disable – and enable – the service whenever the apps in question want access to the fingerprint scanner. Note that this service will stay active only when the screen is turned on. When the screen is off, you’ll still use the fingerprint scanner as usual – for authentication purposes.
If you love fancy the Galaxy S8-like style of tapping the home button, this app might just be your way of enjoying the same experience on your Galaxy S7. The app is only compatible with Android 7.0 Nougat and can be grabbed from the Google Play Store for free.