+Samsung has been testing the One UI 7 Beta before releasing it officially. Only a week after the Beta 1 rollout, the Beta 2 has made its way to users who opted to test the software via the Samsung Members app. You can even install the update manually and check all the new features and changes in the Samsung One UI 7 (Android 15) update. From fluid animation to subtle UI changes, and user-friendly features, we’ll cover every new thing that will come with the upcoming update.
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 has several new widgets and 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 named App and Widget Style lets you increase and decrease the size of home screen apps and widgets. Besides, 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 home screen 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. 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 the one from the available shortcut.
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, 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 don’t appear at all.
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. 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 easily 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Sound Slider and Settings
Do you need to quickly customize sound settings and effects? Just long-press the sound slider and you can change settings like Dolby Atmos, Equalizer, and toggle Loudness Normalization.
Camera Features
1. Revamped Camera UI
One UI brings several new features and improvements to the camera department. The major changes are noticeable in the user interface. 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 procession options.
4. 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.
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 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 a lot of alarms, you can create alarms and group them so that you can turn them 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 it to create your perfect collage.
One UI 7 Galaxy AI Features
1. Call Transcript
You may be disappointed if you’re expecting many new 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.
That’s all for now! We’ll update our list when we discover more new features and changes in the Samsung One UI 7. Stay tuned!
