How to organize App icons into folders on the Samsung Galaxy S3

If you have been downloading apps like crazy since you got your new Galaxy S III, you need to organize them in folders to help find them in the future. 

The Samsung Galaxy S III ships with TouchWiz – Samsung’s own skin to the stock Android software. Out of the box, there is little organization or rhyme or reason as to how your apps wind up where they do. This can make finding them a bit of a challenge.
Organizing your apps into folders can help by combining like apps in one place, which makes future retrieval much easier.  If you are used to previous Android phones where you simply drag one app on top of another to create a folder – you might be frustrated that Samsung has changed that intuitive approach with the Galaxy S III

Start by making your first folder

Start by tapping the Apps icon, which by default is at the lower right hand corner of the Home screen in the Bottom dock of icons.

1. Touch the Apps icon
2. Locate the first app you want to put into a folder
3. Touch and hold the app
4. Drag the app to the lower left hand corner of the screen to the Create folder icon
5. A new folder is created on the screen

  

Now, we need to give that folder a name. In this example, I want to create a folder for all my Google apps, so I start with Google Drive, create the folder as noted above and name the folder Google.

Once the folder is created, I now want to add apps into that folder to help me stay organized. I will start with trying to get my Google Chrome app into the Google folder I just created.

1. Touch and hold an icon (in this case Chrome)
2. You will see the folder you just created
3. Drag the icon into the folder
4. Tap the folder to see that it now contains multiple App icons

  

I repeated this procedure to add my Google +, Gmail, Google Voice, Google Play, Google Music and Google Search apps to my new Google folder.

Add the folder to the Bottom dock

Now that I have put all my Google apps into one folder, I want easy access to all those apps I use so often. One way to do this is to actually put the entire folder into the Bottom dock of icons.
Before I can do this, I need to make some room and remove one of the icons from the Bottom dock. Since I usually use Chrome as my browser on my Galaxy S III, I will move the Internet icon out of the Bottom dock:

1. Touch and hold the App icon (in this case, Internet)
2. Drag the icon upwards
3. Touch and hold the folder (in this case, the Google folder)
4. Drag the folder down into the Bottom dock of icons
5. I now have a folder with eight apps instead of just one app in the Bottom dock

  

Make a Home screen just of folders

You can repeat this process for all of your apps. I make folders for Games, Social Networking, News, Weather and other categories where I have multiple apps on my phone. All the folders are on one Home screen, so I quickly have access to my most important apps – all in one place.

Using folders saves screen real estate and makes it more convenient to make one Home page with most of my folders so I don’t have to search around for my apps.