One UI 3: Samsung starts updating to Android 11

After the beta program launched in August, Samsung is now starting to roll out the final One UI 3 based on Android 11 for the first selected smartphones in Europe as well. More smartphones of the upper class will be used in the coming weeks. The Galaxy A series will follow in the first half of 2021.

An Android 11-based UI 3 is now rolling out to the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 + and Galaxy S20 Ultra in South Korea, the United States and Europe. Updates are planned for the entire Galaxy Note 20 series, Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Z Flip, Galaxy Fold and the entire Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy S10 series in the coming weeks. During the first half of 2021, Samsung plans to update the Galaxy A series smartphones to One UI 3. Details on the respective availability of updates will be announced via the Samsung Members app.

Samsung also confirmed today that the smartphones will ship with three new generations of Android from now on. Smartphones arriving on the market with Android 10 will therefore receive Android 11, 12 and 13. The Galaxy S10 series smartphones, which come with Android 9, are subject to the regulation announced in August.

New design and new animations

Samsung’s One UI 3 introduces a new design for the home screen, lock screen and notifications, which should focus on important information better and more easily accessible to the user. A new soft / blur effect, especially for notifications, should help too. Users can store a set of newly designed widgets on their home screen.

Samsung has also revised the animations. These should now feel smoother and have been expanded by Samsung to include haptic feedback from the vibration motor. The way the screen lock slowly disappears when you open it or the moving cursor should feel more realistic than before. Every screen users come into contact with has been redesigned, according to Samsung.

New lock screen specific widgets are designed to make it more useful. There is wider access to music and calendar with One UI 3. For incoming messages, Samsung detects groupings introduced with Android 11. Video calls now take up the entire screen.

The camera should take better photos

Even without new hardware, the camera app should now deliver better results. Samsung talks about better digital zoom supported by artificial intelligence and improvements in the areas of autofocus and automatic exposure. In the photo gallery, the recordings can be sorted by new categories. If you swipe up on a single photo, the new gallery shows the associated recordings. The original recordings can now be restored at any time, even if previous changes have been saved.

Video for incoming calls

The quick settings above the notifications should now be easier to change just by swiping back and forth. Users get more freedom through a configurable sharing panel, where the most popular methods for sharing, such as individual contacts and apps, can be added on top. Additional customization options are available for home screen widgets, the transparency of which can now be set. You can also customize the clock design and colors on the home and lock screen. For incoming calls from contacts, you can save not only a photo but also a video of the caller.

With the digital wellbeing overview, digital habits should now be able to be identified and improved more quickly. The corresponding app shows the details about the use of the smartphone with daily and weekly logs of the viewing time and, if desired, also adjusts the time to go to sleep.