Three ways to add camera shortcuts to Samsung Galaxy S4 lock screen

The Samsung Galaxy S4 packs a stonking 13-megapixel camera and the camera ships with a lot of awesome new smart features, such as Dual Shot, a Sound & Shot mode that puts audio in the background of still images,etc. Catch any moment to keep every memory is very easy with this device. But right out of the box you could be forgiven for thinking there's no way of unlocking the phone straight into the camera app. Like many of the Galaxy S4's advanced features, this is optional, and disabled by default. Enabling it is easy. Just follow these three different ways to add camera shortcuts to the Galaxy S4 lock screen in order to not miss any moment.

The first method is simple enough -- from the Settings app, go to My device > Lock screen and enable "Shortcuts." From there you can customize which shortcut icons are shown down below on the lock screen, and loading one of these apps up is a simple as dragging it upwards. Naturally, one of the defaults is the camera app.

The second and third ways both involve lock screen widgets, and you'll need to enable them through Settings > My device > Lock screen > Multiple widgets. Once that's done, you can go to Lock screen widgets > Favorite apps or Camera, which controls the widget that appears on the far right. The "camera" option is straightforward enough -- select it, and you get a big blocky camera shortcut, like on the Nexus 4. "Favorite apps" is a bit more versatile, and this allows you to customize a grid of apps -- one of these, of course, can be the camera app.

So there's more than one way to get your camera shortcut fix on the GS4, and there's a good chance at least one of these three will suit the way you use your phone. For a quick walkthrough, just check out the video above from androidcentral.