Birds of a feather: One UI 7 is back to looking like iOS

Samsung’s interface is getting another overhaul soon — probably when a new version is released Galaxy S25 The series will be announced in January. The beta version has begun to roll out, and the first version will be available on the mobile phones of enthusiasts on December 5.

And, for what it is, it’s a pretty fresh visual upgrade. There are some new icons, cleaner animations, more customization options, a redesigned Quick Switch UI (looks a lot like the iPhone Control Center), a redesigned battery icon (looks like an iPhone Battery icon), Instant Activity widget (looks a lot like the iPhone’s dynamic island…wait a minute!

Live Events and Now Bar

new A user interface 7 There will be instant notifications, which means they will be dynamic mini-widgets in the form of notifications that show you the tasks you are currently working on. For example, timer, recording, music playback, charging progress, etc. Like the dynamic island around Apple’s camera cutout, it’s an instant widget that displays the currently active task.

Now, Samsung is doing things a little differently. When on the lock screen, the now bar is at the bottom, making it easy to tap and slide with your thumb when you pick up the phone with one hand. When you unlock it, you’ll see an “Instant Notifications” button in the upper left corner – click it and the “Instant Bar” will expand at the top of the screen.

This is a slightly different approach, with more ergonomics in mind. But it evokes the feeling of a dynamic island very strongly.

Quick setting panel

Samsung has improved on this again, allowing you to expand collective switching folders and make them the size you want.

You can also instantly invoke Quick Settings by swiping from the top right corner of the screen (instead of swiping down twice), like iOS has done for years. One UI 6 used to be able to do this too, but it wasn’t a default setting – it was called Quick Settings Instant Access and could be found when editing the arrangement of quick switches.

Regardless, we can’t say there’s a clear winner here. Both Samsung and Apple’s Quick Settings/Control Center have become a little too complex and complicated for features that are supposed to give you quick access to simple things. We assume that most users will leave them at their default values, or tweak them slightly, rather than modify them too much.

Lock screen clock and widgets

No complaints here, though. The new style is very clean, modern, informative and customizable. This is one of the nice things Apple has done with its quality-of-life feature set on iOS, and we’re excited to enjoy it on Galaxies as well.

Speaking of lock screen –

Lock screen media player

When playing music while your phone is locked, your entire wallpaper switches to show you album artwork, with media playback controls located near the bottom of the screen for easy access. What I’m describing is A user interface 7 or iOS 18 here? Ha! It’s both!

Previously, One UI only showed you a rectangular notification for music playback with a cropped illustration. The new style is definitely more attractive, but it definitely borrows lessons from the iPhone.

Since we’re still on the lock screen –

The always-on display is illuminated

In fact, there are enough negative reviews and reviews that Apple now actually lets you choose a “boring” old all-black always-on mode with just a clock and notifications.

Battery icon

Another long-awaited visual upgrade. Until now, Samsung used to display battery status via a single vertical battery icon in the upper right corner. If you enable battery percentage visibility, they will be located next to the battery icon, taking up more space in the notification shade. The look is definitely out of fashion in 2024, that’s for sure!

exist A user interface 7the battery icon turns to one side and the percentage number is displayed inside. The shape of the icon and the way it lights up green when charging looks very iOS-esque. But we’re glad it’s modernized!

Recent apps carousel

Finally, the recent apps carousel has been given a visual update. It still functions the same as before – you get a “Close All” button and a row of suggested apps based on your usage of that button. The carousel itself has just received a slight visual tweak. Now, instead of swiping through different windows of recently used apps, you can filter through what appears to be a stack of apps. This one looks very iOS.

What do you think?

This is a small bonus round. As anyone who has used an iPhone since the iPhone X redesign probably knows, there is no easy way to turn off your iPhone. That’s not quite the case with the “power button” – since the home button is now gone and the side button has become the Apple Pay/Siri button, holding it down won’t bring up the power menu. The only way to turn off your iPhone is to go to Settings -> General -> Turn Off, or do a combination of Volume Up -> Volume Down -> Hold Power (few people Know this!

Samsung solved a similar problem but gave you the ability to turn off the phone using a “power off” button, which is easily accessible in the notification shade. Why do we go into this tirade? because with iOS 18Apple actually copied this tiny feature and finally gave us an easy way to turn off our iPhone. Crazy, right?

return A user interface 7although. Has Samsung gone too far, or are these just welcome refreshments? We do believe that Galaxies is trying to make it easier for those choosing to switch from an iPhone for the first time. Other than that, the visual upgrades look really cute and modern. Samsung took inspiration from Apple’s interface in most places – it took it a step further and added an extra spin to it.

On the other hand, is it possible that we might wake up one day and find that every smartphone looks, operates, and feels the same? Some of the thoughts are chilling!