Samsung Notes "Action Icons" issues

[Charlie]

"Action icons," which used to let us "call numbers, send emails, solve equations, and go to websites straight from icons that appear with your handwritten notes," don't work anymore. I've reported this many times, and it still hasn't been fixed. The app is mostly useless now.

[LongHiker · Accepted solution]

@Charlie This is still working for me. Remember that the note must be saved or in read mode. It can't be in edit mode. 

Click on 

to put the note in, or out, of read mode.  

[Charlie]

Thank you! I didn't realize that it requires that extra step now. Before 6.1 I didn't have to click on that in order for it to work. I guess they just made it more complicated. 🙃

[Cameldan]

This didn't used to be the default and adds an extra step. Before, when entering a note, it would default to read mode and if you clicked on the text, the editing options would come up. Now I have to hit the little book icon to turn on read mode either before I leave a note or when I'm entering a note. This adds a useless extra step, is there a way to turn this off or go back to the previous default?

[Soumen]

Thank you very much for sharing this , now it works for me too

[RS from NL]

It seems as if since the most recent 'Samsung Notes' update (currently using version 4.4.21.63 of 19AUG24) the functionality has changed slightly from before.
The action icons still work, but ONLY if you select the 'Reading mode' in the top right corner (open book icon). In this mode hovering with the S-pen will show a phone, e-mail, browser or calculator icon as an option, when appropriate.

Fantastic (..and fancy) Samsung-feature still !
Hope this of use to some, hope it turns out to be the same "issue" for the S24 users.
(same complaint was posted in S24-forum, but clearly it's the app, not the hardware)


(S23 Ultra, Android OS14, OneUI-6.1)

[RS from NL]

To add to (own) previous post above: I checked on my older Note 10+ running 'Samsung Notes' (older version 4.4.10.71) and indeed: different/normal behaviour there.

A saved Note then initially opens (by default) in a reading mode, whereby the action icons (phone, e-mail, internet, calculator) are fully functional. One has to actively select 'Edit mode' by tapping the "square-with-pen"-button (top right corner), after which action icons are no longer active, which makes sense during editing.

Once in this edit mode, the button (now changed to an "open-book"-icon) can be selected to enter what is labeled 'Reading mode' but actually would better be labeled 'Preview mode': changes in text, drawings and formatting can be viewed without yet saving the Note (and thereby losing the original).
In this mode you will notice the button darkened and the toolbar at the bottom disappears.

Only by using the return-arrow button (top left corner) or the (Android) Back-button, will the (edited) Note be saved and the action icons become active again.

Summarizing: a (saved) Note normally has a 3-layers structure upon selection:
Read (incl. action icons)
- - > Edit
- - - - > Preview (within Edit-mode)
- - < Edit
Read (and saved)

I would consider the current Notes-behaviour an accidentally introduced "bug" in the software.
When selecting an existing Note to read, you now immediately enter the Edit-mode, which is undesirable, instead of Reading-mode (with action icons).

Selecting 'Reading mode' manually can be used as a workaround until fixed in a next Samsung Notes update.

[Light6]

It seems like its also not working on my tab s9+ despite going to reading mode,anyone has the same issue here?

[Charlie]

It still works on my Tab S8 Ultra and phone.