Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note 9 to get Android Pie-based ‘One UI’ in January

At its developer conference, along with showcasing its foldable display device, Samsung also unveiled ‘One UI’ — it’s new design language for the custom user interface skip for Samsung’s devices.

During the announcement of One UI, the company also revealed that it will begin beta testing of Android Pie-based One UI for select devices later this month in US, Korea, and Germany. It should roll out to other European and Asian countries at some later point.

The devices that will receive the update includes Galaxy S9, S9, and Note 9. While open beta will be available from this month, the public release of the One UI for the mentioned device will take place in January 2019.

Comparing to the Samsung Experience UX which requires two hands to operate, the new One UI is claimed to have been built for a “more natural and comfortable” one-handed use cases. Samsung said that it has been working on the new experience for the past year, and the prime target is to make the interface less cluttered.

The focus of Samsung One UI is on keeping the most relevant content in the most useful place — bottom of the screen. All of Samsung’s apps have adopted a bottom bar layout for smaller navigation elements alongside larger header elements. Menus also pop-up at the bottom of the screen instead of the center.

During the SDC 2018 Keynote, Jee Won Lee, Senior Designer of UX Design at Samsung, said:

With One UI, now you see only the essential features related to the task you are carrying out. It’s a continuous and fluid experience where the necessary buttons appear when you need them and gently disappear when you don’t.

The South Korean company has also introduced a system-wide Night Mode that enables a dark, AMOLED-friendly theme throughout the UI and Samsung’s apps. The new Samsung One UI will also theme itself to match the color of the phone, similar to what Samsung offered on Galaxy Note 9 with its new S-Pen.

 

Read More: Samsung to launch phones with notched display; showcases U, V, and O shaped notch designs

 

Along with that, some Android Pie-based features, including gesture-supported navigation are likely to be a part of the One UI for the devices that’ll receive Android Pie update in January next year. It seems that we’ll have to wait for the Android Pie-based Samsung One UI to make debut in January to see what it actually brings to the table and how it performs.