Use the Galaxy Note 9’s S Pen to Take A Selfie
Say goodbye to selfie sticks. The Note 9’s Bluetooth S Pen is here.
Samsung upgraded the S Pen for its new phone to make it more useful. The stylus now connects over Bluetooth, so it can function as a remote for the phone. Samsung is also offering up a software developers’ kit so other apps can add support for the S Pen’s new capabilities. But the best use of the stylus-as-remote is available right now — you can use the S Pen to take selfies.
Holding a 6.4-inch glass slab up in the air and attempting to tap the camera shutter while also looking attractive is a lot to ask of a person. The S Pen makes that much easier, because clicking its button takes the photo for you.
First, you have to set up the S Pen to act as the camera remote. Here’s how.—Caitlin McGarry
1. Open Settings.
2. Scroll down to Advanced Features.
3. Select S Pen.
4. Tap S Pen Remote at the top of the screen.
5. To make life even easier, you can customize the S Pen so that pressing its button from the home screen opens the Camera app. You can assign that gesture to another app, but if you take a lot of photos, the Camera is a natural default.
6. Scroll down to App Actions. Make sure Camera is toggled on.
7. Customize the S Pen’s button so that a single press and a double press perform different tasks. For the camera, you can choose between taking a picture, switching the camera from front-facing to rear-facing mode, recording video and doing nothing.
Now your S Pen can take your photo:
1. Remove the pen from its dock in the bottom of the Note 9.
2. Long press the pen’s button to open the Camera app.
3. Double press the S Pen’s button to switch to front-facing mode.
4. Click the button one more time to take a selfie — no taps on the screen required.
