I turned my Samsung Galaxy phone into a personal setup with these Good Lock customization plugins

I haven't always been interested in deeply customizing my Samsung Galaxy smartphone. For a long time, I only went with Samsung's built-in options. But out of interest, I decided to try out Good Lock a few months ago, since it's one of the most highly rated apps for Samsung phones.

That's when I realized just how much I could do, injecting my own personality into my phone. The best part is that it's not an all-or-nothing process — you can choose the Good Lock plugins you want to use, while leaving other elements as their defaults.

Wonderland injected some much-needed personality into my home and lock screens

The time invested definitely paid off

At first, I was a bit cautious about using Wonderland. I usually don't use an AOD on my device, and I was worried that having an animated wallpaper would be a bit too cluttered. But when I actually went into the different options and created my own, I was able to find a balance between fun and utility.

My more personalized home screen now features a beloved image of my cat Loxi with two different types of flower icons floating on the screen. The image also tilts as I move my phone around without being disorienting.

Meanwhile, my lock screen and always-on display (AOD) switch between two images of my cat Black Velvet. The AOD is just a picture of her peeking through a gap in the black screen, which adds a bit of fun to my setup. Turning my AOD on also hasn't affected my Samsung Galaxy phone's battery life much, so it didn't come with a real drawback.

You can select a number of templates that you can use as-is or edit to your own tastes. You can also create your own design from scratch. I like to browse the templates to see what's possible, then create my own design. Sometimes, I use a template for one specific effect, but swap out everything else so that it achieves the result I want.

ClockFace lets you play with even more lock screen clock styles

There are plenty to choose from

One UI's lock screen clock options already give you plenty to choose from, but you can expand your choices with the Good Lock plugin ClockFace.

Like many of the other plugins, ClockFace lets you select from templates or create your own design from scratch. I was impressed with how much you can do in ClockFace.

When creating your own clock face, you can add multiple layers. These include a digital or analog clock, a text clock, the date, text, images, GIFs, and the weather.

Each option also offers opportunities for further customization. For example, when selecting a digital clock, you can select the font and coloring for the digits. Meanwhile, the images you add can be from a set of supplied icons or from your own gallery.

The main drawback is that ClockFace only applies this style to your AOD and your lock screen — you can't use the clock as a widget on your home screen. This is a bit of a disappointment as I'm always searching for a weather and clock widget that suits my tastes.

Keys Cafe makes your keyboard fun

Tailor your keys to your needs

I have to be careful when selecting my keyboard design, since too much animation or bright colors could trigger my migraines. But Keys Cafe lets you customize so much of your keyboard interface that even if one of the pre-existing designs doesn't suit you, you can still create the perfect keyboard for yourself.

When designing or customizing your keyboard, you can choose the colors (as well as different colors for different types of keys), animated keyboard effects, and keyboard sounds. If you have a Samsung phone with a stylus, you can also adjust the style of your drawing animation.

I went with a dark keyboard that still featured some cute paw print animations when I type. I also changed the color palette of my keyboard to include some green. This means that my keyboard is still fun, while also taking into account the light and motion sensitivity caused by my chronic migraines.

You can also make your own keyboard layout, something that comes in handy when you want to feature certain symbols or get rid of ones you never use. The plugin also lets you create stickers from photos, so you can access them from your keyboard when you're typing in a field that supports them. I made a sticker of my cat scowling, because it works better than any reaction GIF for me.

Make your Quick Settings panel your own with QuickStar

You can even add backgrounds

QuickStar allows you to customize your Quick Settings panel in a number of ways. First, you can choose the panel theme to set the color and transparency of your Quick Settings dropdown menu.

Meanwhile, the panel style allows you to adjust the background of specific sections of the control panel. For example, for my button box, I generated an image using drawing assist that shows cats peeking around a rectangle. For my volume and brightness control panels, I added photos of my pets. You can also change the icons for specific Quick Settings buttons like your Wi-Fi.

Advanced settings allow you to resize panel items, show numbers in your brightness and volume bars, and adjust button spacing. You can even adjust the ratio for split notifications.

Use these Good Lock plugins to customize your own Samsung smartphone experience

While Samsung Galaxy phones offer decent customization options, using Good Lock really takes the experience to the next level. I'm not really the kind of person who likes to fiddle around with settings and configurations, but making my phone more personalized with Good Lock has been a great experience.

While I've highlighted a few of my favorite plugins, there are plenty more to try. So take a look at what's available and see if any of them spark your interest.