Samsung has finally started rolling out the stable version of the One UI 7 update. If you have an eligible Samsung device, you can install the Android 15 update using Odin and check all the new features and changes in the Samsung One UI 7 update. From fluid animation to subtle UI changes and user-friendly features, we’ll explore over 60 new features and changes One UI 7 brings.
If you won a Galaxy S24 series phone, you can experience the One UI 7 Beta 6 right away before its official release.
One UI Home Launcher
One UI 7 update brings several overhauls and tweaks to the One UI home launcher.
1. Redesigned App Icons
Coming from One UI 6 to One UI 7, you’ll notice some newly designed icons for Samsung apps like Samsung Internet, Clock, Calculator, Recorder, PenUp, Wallet, Calculator, Studio, etc.
2. Stackable Widgets
One UI 7 brings several new widgets. Moreover, it allows you to stack multiple widgets on your home screen. To create a widget stack, long-press the home screen, tap Widgets, select a widget, and add it to the home screen. Once added, long-press the widget, select the Create Stack option, and add a widget.
To add more widgets to the stack, long-press the widget again and select the Edit Stack option. Now, swipe the widget stack from right to left and tap the ‘+’ icon. Add the widget you want.
3. Customize Home Screen Widget Background
If you don’t like the background of your home screen widget, you can remove it, switch between light and dark backgrounds, or customize its transparency. Long-press the widget you wish to customize, select Settings, and customize its background to your preference.
4. Intelligent App Folders
App folders are not new to the One UI launcher or home launchers from other Android OEMs. The One UI 7 Launcher intelligently categorizes apps and moves them to relevant folders in the apps screen. Unfortunately, it fails to recognize the category of all apps, but it’s a new feature.
5. Enlarge Home Screen Folders
Another cool One UI 7 feature I love is the option to enlarge and shrink home screen folders. Long-press a folder on the home screen and select the Enlarge option. Once enlarged, you can shrink a folder using the Shrink option. You can launch the apps in a large folder by tapping the app icon without opening the folder.
6. Vertically Scrolling Apps Screen
The One UI Home Launchers have always had horizontal or side-scrolling app screens. However, One UI 7 changed that, and now we have a vertically scrolling apps screen. In case you prefer the old side-scrolling, open the apps screen, tap the 3-dot icon in the Search bar, which has now moved to the bottom, and select Sort > Custom order.
The Apps screen also has a vertical bar at the right edge to help users find apps quickly. You can swipe this bar to find apps alphabetically.
7. App and Widget Style
Another new feature, called App and Widget Style, lets you increase and decrease the size of home screen apps and widgets. You can also enable or disable the app labels on the home screen.
8. Add Samsung Free to the Media Page
Until One UI 6.1, we could only have Google Discover on the media page. With One UI 7, you can also set Samsung Free as the media page.
Battery and Charging
Below is a list of changes you’ll notice in the battery and charging department.
1. New Charging Bar
We’re used to the animated charging circle on Samsung Galaxy devices. The One UI 7 introduces a brand new charging animation, replacing the circle with a charging bar.
2. Battery Level Indicator
The One UI 7 update brings a new pill-shaped battery level indicator on the status bar.
3. Multiple Levels of Battery Protection
The Battery Protection feature on One UI 6 stopped the phone from charging beyond 80% to enhance the battery lifespan. One UI 7 allows users to set the battery protection charging limit to 80, 85, 90, and 95%. Navigate to Settings > Battery > Battery Protection > Maximum and choose the percentage when you want the battery to stop charging.
4. More Options for Power Saving
You now have more control over what happens when your phone is in Power Saving mode. Choose exactly the features you want to limit to save the amount of battery that’s right for you. You can even change these options while Power Saving is on.
5. Auto Dim Screen
The One UI 7 update brings another power-saving feature to Samsung Galaxy devices. When enabled, it automatically dims the screen brightness when the battery level goes below 5%.
Lock Screen and AOD
1. Lock Screen Customization
In One UI 7, you can enjoy a bunch of new clock faces on the lock screen with cool animation effects. Also, you can customize the lock screen without entering the device settings. However, you must enable the Touch and Hold to Edit option in the Lock Screen and AOD settings.
Now, touch and hold the lock screen to enable edit mode.
Tap the clock widget to customize the clock font and color or change its style.
By tapping the Add widget option under the clock, you can add widgets like Battery, Calendar, Camera, Device Care, Digital Wellbeing, Gallery, Samsung Health, Weather, etc.
The Variations option at the bottom lets you choose from the different versions of the live wallpaper for the lock screen. To do the same for the home screen, tap the Home option.
2. More Lock Screen Shortcuts
By default, we have the Phone and Camera shortcuts on the lock screen. One UI 7 offers more apps and settings that can be set as lock screen shortcuts. To customize, tap the existing shortcut and select from the available ones.
3. AOD Clock Theming
If you don’t like the big AOD clock on your Samsung phone’s lockscreen, this One UI 7 feature will please you. One UI 7 Always on Display adapts to the clock style of your Samsung theme.
4. Lock Screen Notifications
On One UI 6.1 and older versions, the lockscreen notifications, battery indicator, and music widgets appeared below the clock.
5. Customize Lock Screen Notifications Appearance
Earlier, we could have lockscreen notifications either as icons or cards. Now, there are 3 styles to display the notifications on the lock screen: Dot, Icons, and, Card.
6. Now Bar
Now Bar is another useful and interesting feature in the upcoming One UI 7 update. It’s an interactive, dynamic island-type tile highlighting information like Music, Clock, Maps, Voice Recorder, Samsung Health, Interpreter, Timer, Stopwatch, Samsung Note, Modes and Routines, and Bixby.
If multiple supported apps are running, you can switch between them right from the lock screen. The Now Bar is also displayed on the AOD screen.
Moreover, you can expand the Now Bar by tapping the app icon and contract it back by pinching it in.
7. Status Bar Notification Styles
You can also change the way notifications appear on the status bar. Navigate to Settings > Notifications > Status bar and choose whether you want your notifications to appear as a dot or icons, or not appear at all.
8. Phone Lock and Unlock Sound
When you lock or unlock your phone, you get a sound effect. There is no sound if the phone locks itself after a certain duration, but only when you lock or unlock the device using the power button.
Quick Settings and Notifications
1. New Quick Settings Panel
One UI 7 completely revamps the Notifications and Quick Settings panel. In One UI 6.1, swiping down from the status bar displayed the quick settings toggles and notifications. Now, swiping down on the home screen or from the top-left corner opens the notifications area. To access the quick settings toggles, swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen.
However, you can still customize the Quick Settings panel so it displays the notifications and quick shortcuts together. Tap the Edit icon, select Panel Settings > Notification and Quick Settings View, and select Together.
In Edit mode, you can also arrange the Quick Settings tiles. Simply, tap and hold a tile and move it to your desired location.
2. New Notification Layout
Icons on notifications are now the same as the icon that appears on your Home screen, making it easy to recognize which app sent each notification. Grouped notifications appear as a stack of cards. Tap a stack to show all notifications in the group.
3. Swipe to Swap Between Notifications and Quick Settings Page
If you find opening the Notifications page and the Quick Settings panel on One UI 7, here’s a cool way to swap between them. Open the Notifications page by swiping from up to down, and then swipe from right to left to open the Quick Settings page. Similarly, you can access your notifications by swiping from left to right to open Quick Settings.
4. Live Notifications
Stay on top of what’s happening right now. Live notifications show you the progress of ongoing activities like timers, voice recordings, exercises, and more so you can take quick actions related to them. Live notifications will appear in the Now bar on the Lock screen, on the status bar, and at the top of the notification panel.
5. Expandable Quick Settings Tile
In One UI 6, the Quick Settings tile had side-scrolling. Now, you can swipe down or up the handle at the bottom to expand or contract the tile.
6. New Brightness Slider
One UI 7 brings an interactive brightness slider. When you adjust the brightness, the slider appears on the home screen or the currently active app. It’s a practical feature because now you can see the brightness effect live for a specific app.
If you want to customize brightness settings, you can directly access them by long-pressing the brightness slider in the Quick Settings screen.
7. Sound Slider and Settings
Do you need to customize sound settings and effects quickly? Just long-press the sound slider, and you can change settings like Dolby Atmos, Equalizer, and toggle Loudness Normalization.
8. New Status Bar
One UI 7 completely changes the status bar experience. In earlier iterations, it displayed notifications and icons for enabled features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, alarm, NFC, network type, network signal, etc., on both the lock and home screens. One UI 7 limits the number of status bar icons on the home and other screens. On the home screen, you only get time and app notifications on the left and Wi-Fi, signal bars, and battery icons on the right. When you open the Notifications or Quick Settings screen, the current time and app notifications give way to the operator name and
Camera Features
1. Revamped Camera UI
One UI brings several new features and improvements to the camera department. Camera buttons, controls, and modes have been reorganized to make it easier to find the features you need and to give you a clearer preview of the picture you’re taking or the video you’re recording. The camera menu has been moved right above the shutter icon and can be accessed by tapping the menu icon.
The option to select camera modes such as Portrait, Photo, Video, etc., has shifted below the shutter icon.
2. Grid Lines and Level
Earlier, we only had grid lines to help capture straight photos and videos. The new update adds a real-time level indicator. You can enable this feature from the camera settings.
3. Motion Photo Capture
This is an old Samsung camera feature, but now it has a new option that captures motion before and after the shutter.
4. Expert Raw App
If you explore the Camera Modes in One UI 7, you’ll find an option named Expert Raw. When you tap it, an app named Expert Raw will be downloaded and installed on your device. You can access professional photo-editing options via the Expert Raw app or Camera Modes in the Camera app.
In the Expert Raw mode, you’ll have access to all professional-grade picture processing options.
5. Save Different Exposure Settings
Now you can control how bright or dark your pictures are by saving exposure settings for different camera modes. After you set the exposure for a camera mode, it’ll stick with it even when you switch to a new mode. The new Exposure monitor for Pro and Pro video modes helps you get the right exposure in your pictures and videos.
6. Upgraded Filter Experience
Camera filters have been completely revamped. New filters are now available, and existing filters have been improved. Each filter allows fine-tuned adjustments of intensity, color temperature, contrast, and saturation, making it easier to get the look you want. You can also create custom filters based on the style and mood of the pictures you choose.
7. Advanced Editing with Log Videos
Get pro-level control over video color grading by recording in log format. Just turn on the Log in Camera settings and the preview, then start shooting. The feature works in Video and Pro Video modes.
8. Play Audio while Recording Videos
You can now record videos without interrupting music, podcasts, or other audio content you’re listening to. Just turn on Audio playback in Advanced video options.
Miscellaneous New Features
1. Fluid Animations
A new One UI 7 feature that will immediately capture your attention is the fast, buttery-smooth animation effects in the user interface.
2. Loudness Normalization
Have you ever been taken aback by sudden loudness or quietness in audio while playing media? One UI 7 introduces a new feature called Loudness Normalization. You can access this feature by navigating to Settings > Sounds and Vibration. When enabled, it prevents sound from abruptly becoming louder or quieter.
3. Adaptive Color Tone
There is another new display-related feature in One UI 7. When turned on, it intelligently adjusts the white balance and color tone based on lighting conditions so the objects on the display look more natural.
4. Unread Messages Card
Earlier, we had a list of unread messages marked with dots. Now, when you open the Messages app, you’re greeted with a card notifying you about all unread messages. When you tap the card, it’ll show only the list of unread messages.
5. Super HDR Mode for Pictures
Under Advanced Features, you’ll find a new option named Super HDR. The Super HDR effect is available only for pictures taken with your Samsung or any other Galaxy phone.
6. Quick Sharing Over the Internet
Finally, a much-needed feature has made its way to Samsung Galaxy devices. The feature allows sharing files between two devices even over mobile data when the Wi-Fi connection is weak or unstable. You can access the feature in Connected Devices settings.
7. Group Alarms and Different Volume Levels
If you tend to set many alarms, you can create and group them to turn on or off together.
Now you can set custom volume levels for each alarm.
8. Create Freeform Collages
One UI 7 supports freeform collages. That means you can create photo and video collages with any imaginable layout. Open the Gallery app and select the photos and videos you want to include in the collage and tap the Create option. Then select the Collage option and tap each picture/video separately on the next page, resize, rotate, move, and zoom to create your perfect collage.
9. New Video Editing Tools and Effects
One UI 7 brings several new tools and effects for video editing. You now have Undo and Redo options when editing videos for actions such as transformations, filters, and tone changes. The Auto trim feature finds the best sections of your video and automatically trims away the unnecessary parts. Moreover, you can add fun animation effects to stickers and text in your videos in Studio. Choose from fade in, fade out, wipes, rotation, and more.
10. Date Overlay in Recents Calls List
The Recents screen in the phone app on Samsung devices organizes the list of calls date-wise. Now, when you scroll the call log on your device, you’ll see a small overlay toast on the top of the list displaying the day, date, month, and year of the calls.
11. New Do Not Disturb Mode Settings
One UI 7 lets you customize the duration of Do Not Disturb mode.
12. Customize Game Booster for Each Game
Samsung has redesigned the Game Booster’s in-game panel. It’s now easier to change settings quickly without leaving the action. Game Booster now lets you adjust performance settings separately for each game. You can set some games to high performance and others to save battery for longer gameplay time.
13. More Security Features
New theft protection features help protect your apps and data in case your phone is stolen. The screen will lock automatically if theft is detected or your network connection is lost, or you can lock the screen manually by going to android.com/lock. You can also require biometric verification before changing sensitive settings.
Moreover, the Auto Blocker feature works more aggressively to protect you from cyberattacks. It now blocks 2G networks nd prevents the phone from automatically reconnecting to non-secure Wi-Fi networks. These restrictions can help prevent an attacker from intercepting your network traffic.
14. New Good Lock Features
Samsung has updated its Good Lock suite to give you more control and customization options. With Good Lock, you can personalize various aspects of your phone’s interface and functionality beyond the default settings.
The suite offers 20 features that let you customize several One UI 7 elements.
- Home Up: Customize the home screen, app drawer, and folder styles.
- QuickStar: Modify the Quick Panel (notification shade) and status bar.
- One Hand Operation+: Improve one-handed usability with gesture controls.
- Sound Assistant: Fine-tune audio settings, including per-app volume controls.
- Theme Park: Create and apply custom themes, icon packs, and color schemes.
- Nice Catch: Log and track system events like accidental touches or pop-ups.
- Nice Shot: Use the screenshot and screen recording features more efficiently.
- LockStar: Customize the lock screen with widgets, clocks, and shortcuts.
- MultiStar:Â Enhance multitasking features like split-screen and pop-up windows.
- ClockFace: Change the Always On Display (AOD) and lock screen clock styles.
- NavStar: Customize navigation bar buttons and gestures.
- Key Cafe: Optimize the Samsung Keyboard, create stickers, and customize its layout, design, and symbols
- Wonderland: Create 3D motion wallpapers with various effects.
- Pentastic: Apply various styles to the S Pen, change the air command menu, S Pen sound effects, and the S Pen pointer.
- Camera Assistant: Customize camera settings.
- Edge Lightning+: Add a personal touch to the edge lighting notifications.
- Edge Touch: Adjust settings for touch on the edge screen.
- NotiStar: Manage the notifications history.
- RegiStar: Reconfigure the Settings menu.
- Routines+: Customize Bixby routines with new features.
Please note that GoodLock doesn’t come pre-installed on Samsung devices. You have to download and install it from the Galaxy Store.
One UI 7 Galaxy AI Features
1. Transcribe and Summarize Recorded Calls
You may be disappointed if you’re expecting many new Galaxy AI features in the One UI 7. However, there are still a couple of new useful features. Call Transcript is one of them. When enabled, it converts recorded calls into text transcripts. The transcripts can be viewed on the Recents screen in the Phone app.
2. AI Composer
We already had AI features like Auto format, Summarize, Spelling and Grammar, Translate, and Writing Style in One UI 6.1. Now, it also has a Composer feature which works in messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messages. When you select text tap the 4-star icon that appears, and you can correct spelling and grammar, change tone, summarize, or apply formatting. You can even start with a short snippet and let the AI do the writing for you.
3. Remove or Adjust Sounds in Videos
Audio eraser helps you get the sound in your videos just right. You can remove unwanted sounds such as wind or crowd noise. Open a video and tap the Edit icon, and select the Audio Eraser icon. You can now eliminate distracting noise in videos by adjusting the volume of voices, wind, and other sounds.
4. Create Images with Drawing Assist
Drawing assist makes it easier than ever to create fun images. Start with a simple sketch, add an image, or type in what you want to create. You can generate images in a variety of different styles.
5. Read Webpage Highlights Aloud
Listen to highlights from articles and websites as you browse, or queue up top stories from a news site for seamless listening in Samsung Internet.
6. Search Smarter in Settings
It’s easier to find what you need with natural language search powered by AI. When you search in Settings, you get more accurate and relevant results, even if you don’t know the exact name of the setting you’re trying to find.
7. Quickly Access AI Features via Edge Panel
Galaxy AI features are now available with a quick swipe. When you swipe the edge handle to open the Apps edge panel, useful Galaxy AI features appear at the top.
That’s all for now! We’ll update our list when we discover new features and changes in the Samsung One UI 7. Stay tuned!
