Are you a loyal Samsung fan? If you haven’t hopped on the Samsung bandwagon yet, the upcoming One UI 7 features may help determine if the smartphone company is doing enough to impress you. The One UI 7 beta rollout began for Galaxy S24 devices on December 5, with the initial unveiling targeted towards users in Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the U.K., and the U.S. The full release of the update is expected in early 2025.
The upcoming Samsung UI updates include a couple of new features, but the Samsung Now Bar feature for the lock screen is most noteworthy. Also noteworthy are the adjustments to the home screen and camera UI. Of course, a few AI features are also available, making this one of Samsung’s most interesting design updates in a while.
Image: Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
What One UI 7 Feature Are You Most Excited About?
In Samsung’s own words, “One UI 7 aims to offer an AI-first platform for the most intuitive controls, enabling AI-powered personalized mobile experiences,” which makes it very evident that the whole point of the update is to sell AI capabilities. Thankfully, this isn’t all the smartphone makers have focused on, considering AI features across devices and platforms are always the least useful upgrades that organizations make to their services.
Samsung’s One UI 7 beta rollout is based on Android 15, and while the update was expected months ago, it’s reassuring to see that the smartphone maker is finally setting the groundwork for its full release.
Introducing Advanced AI Writing Assistance Tools on the Galaxy Smartphone
The upcoming Samsung UI updates include AI support via a writing tool that will help users write and format texts to suit the occasion, without having to leave an app. Users will be able to select text and look up information or even have it summarized into bullet points right within the app they are currently on. Checking for errors or formatting text on a smartphone has never been convenient, but this tool should make things a lot easier for Galaxy users
Samsung already has a live translation feature for calls which has proved very useful, but the latest One UI 7 beta rollout has another AI feature that creates call transcripts for those who need to take notes or record key details of a call. Apple and Google have already released similar features, so it’s about time Samsung joins their ranks.
The feature has support for 20 languages, so users should have a much easier time taking a client conversation back to their team or keeping track of tasks after a call.
Image: Samsung shows us how the Now Bar will appear at the bottom of the lock screen.
The Samsung Now Bar Feature Is Interesting But Not Unique
The most interesting feature offered by the One UI 7 update is the “Now Bar,” which is a new notification format for the lock screen. The pill-shaped control that appears on the bottom of the screen gives users instant access to key programs running in the background without having to unlock the phone and open the app.
The Now Bar appears to be a minor change, but it frees up space on the lock screen for your notifications, giving you a simple control to stop or restart tools like the voice recorder or stopwatch. The bar has been likened to the Dynamic Island control seen on the iPhone, however, the Samsung feature appears to be more limited in design and function.
For now, the feature is only compatible with a few Samsung tools like the Interpreter, Maps, and Samsung Health, and is not designed to be utilized by other third-party apps. This vastly limits how much of an impact it’s going to have on the lives of users, but there is a small possibility that the long-term plan involves options to open up opportunities for further integration.
The feature is expected to arrive only on the Galaxy S series devices for now, however, there is no confirmation of its exclusivity.
Image: The camera interface is getting a fresh look.
The Redesigned Camera UX and Home Screen Add a Touch of Simplicity
The Samsung One UI 7 beta also does a decent job of clearing up cluttered settings and notifications while ensuring that they are still easy to find and access. Getting the hang of the new layout of the camera tools is going to take some work, especially with the Pro video mode, but it’s not a difficult task.
The home screen has also been streamlined to organize your smartphone in a way that makes it less cluttered and more customized to the user’s preferences. The “simple, impactful, and emotive design” changes made to the app icons, widgets, and other UI elements aren’t aimed at redesigning the Samsung system, but instead target establishing a more mess-free look which should be interesting to explore.
Samsung has also explored some key safety and security measures with the One UI 7 updates, so even users who don’t particularly care about the changes to the interface will have some relevant updates once the software officially rolls in.
