As good as Samsung's software is at present, there is scope for improvement later in 2021 as well. Samsung's UI software is at the heart of many of the best Android phones out there, like the Galaxy S21 series. The company's smartphone UI has grown significantly since the days of TouchWiz (a.k.a, the old, bad Samsung UI), and the current One UI version 3.1 boasts faster performance sleek animations and a richer feature set.
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| Source: Android Central / Alex Dobie |
Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement, and Samsung's position as the leading Android manufacturer in the West means that expectations are high for the upcoming One UI 4.0 update. Three years after a UI, we've rounded up the top five things we want to see in the next edition.
#1. No more advertisements
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| Source: Joe Maring / Android Central |
In the US, in particular, Samsung phones have become notorious for aggressively advertising, often in the form of notifications, for their users' devices. While it is possible to turn off ads on Samsung phones, it involves digging up the settings in many places, and yet some promotional messages will pop up from time to time. Even in main apps like Weather, you will see videos from Samsung partner Weather.com, which has no way to disable this part of the app.
Samsung's best phones sell for between $ 1000 to $ 2000, and so it makes sense that owners find it difficult to advertise on even the most expensive Galaxy phones at such an aggressive level.
With the upcoming launch of One UI 4, Samsung has the opportunity to eliminate, or at least severely bite, this growing annoyance.
#2. More Useful Notifications
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| Source: Alex Dobie / Android Central |
Notifications are a core part of the smartphone experience. Our phones are, ultimately, communication tools, and information about how we communicate. This is why it is strange that the notification popup of the current version of a UI Bangles is much worse than other Android phones. The out-of-the-box configuration for pop-up alerts on Samsung phones is "abridged", meaning that you will only see the first few words of the message, without additional buttons to read or mark as reply . (To do this, you need to find the notification in the notification shade.)
Want easy notifications? On a UI 3, you are largely out of luck.
This is easily made by changing the setting to "Extended," which gives you standard-sized Android alerts, buttons, and all. The only problem is that you cannot use the "edge lighting" feature with detailed notifications, so it is not possible to pop up full message text when the screen is off. Compare stock behavior on OnePlus, Pixel, and other Android phones, so Samsung's approach makes it easier to keep an eye on alerts as they get inside.
The extensive Android ecosystem is full of examples of easy glanceable notifications, whether through the Always-On Display feature or the Pixel-style popup - and a lot more work for all that is currently in One UI 3.
#3. A more functional power menu
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| Source: Android Central / Alex Dobie |
If you regularly use your phone to control a smart bulb, speaker, or Chromecast target, then you will probably agree that the barefoot menu offered by Samsung at the moment is a waste of prime UI real estate. Whether you are using Google Home or Samsung's own SmartThings ecosystem, more can certainly be done with a UI power menu, and we would expect to see it extended to the next version of the software.
#4. Vertical scrolling app drawer
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| Source: Alex Dobie / Android Central |
A UI was originally created to divide the screen into a display area and an interaction area. Samsung recognized that phones are getting bigger, and most people can only reach the bottom of the screen comfortably. As such, apps and menus were redesigned with new scrolling behavior to make it easier to reach the top of lists, and important controls could be moved closer to the bottom of the screen.
But one notable area where a UI has been stuck in the past is its app drawer. On the current version, it scrolls horizontally, meaning that some applications get stuck permanently at the top of the screen. Most other Android phones avoid this problem by scrolling vertically, so most applications are readily available. The same is for the app search bar at the top of the app drawer - accessing these with one hand is nearly impossible on a large phone like the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
Not everyone uses an app drawer. But for those doing so, and for usability, Samsung should consider redesigning this part of its UI launch into One UI 4.
#5. A More Useful Recents Menu
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| Source: Android Central / Alex Dobie |
A redesigned menu could also let Samsung highlight its stunning window and split-screen modes, with most recent apps hidden behind another layer of menus on the page.
Samsung One UI 4.0, coming soon
Samsung's One UI 4.0 is likely to cover this fall, bringing it with the Android 12 platform update. If there are any indications in the previous year, we may see beta versions of the new software available in September or early October. We will cross our fingers for these new features in the next version of One UI. In the meantime, be sure to share your own hopes for the next-gen Galaxy UI in the comments.