Samsung Galaxy phone owners are on the road toward Android 13, with the launch of the next One UI beta for the Galaxy S22 in some countries.
Galaxy S22 owners in the US, Germany and South Korea can now access the One UI 5 open beta, which is build on Android 13.
Unfortunately, Brits have fallen down the pecking order in Samsung’s eyes in recent years, so no beta launch in the UK yet, but Samsung says more regions will receive the beta over the “coming months.”
As well as all of the features Google is promising with Android 13, Samsung has some user-interface features and quirks of its own within One UI 5. It’s hardly a blockbuster array of features, but some notable features.
Chief among them, according to a Samsung blog post highlighting the changes, are now design options, including new themes and colour options for home screens, app icons and quick panels. It’ll also be possible to stack widgets of the same size, in order to save space and tidy up the design.
There are some tweaks to sound and vibration within a redesigned menu, with new Pro and Pro Video icons within the camera app and a “more responsive zoom bar” that gets you to the target shot faster.
Samsung is also introducing a new security dashboard in One UI 5, which recommends ways to eliminate outstanding security issues. So, if you don’t have a screen lock pin or password, you’ll be forewarned.
Samsung is also adding a Magnifier feature, just like Apple’s, which will enable users to zoom in much tighter on hard-to-read text, while the accessibility options will also be boosted by audio descriptions of videos.
The announcement comes just a couple of days before Samsung launches new Galaxy Fold and Flip handsets at Unpacked on August 10. Hopefully Samsung will give us a timeline on when everyone can expect the Android 13 update for a wider array of Galaxy phones.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
