After being the first to roll out the beta, Samsung has now become the first OEM to release an official Android 12 update in the form of One UI 4. The launch sees the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra being the first to receive the update, with more devices to be added soon.
One UI 4 comes with a more expressive keyboard with GIFs and stickers, as well as new widgets with deeper customisation options. Customising seems to be the core of the update with dynamic colouring in the style of Android 12’s Material You. This generates a colour palette for your phone’s theme based on your wallpaper, which will also be applied to most of Samsung’s stock apps.
It’s adopted the more robust privacy features of Android 12, including a Privacy Dashboard that lets you see which apps are requesting to use sensitive information, as well as indicators that let you see when apps are using your camera and microphone. You can even turn them off completely if you want want absolute privacy from your apps.
While Samsung only said that the rollout for other devices is coming “soon”, a post on the Samsung Members forum (now deleted) revealed the entire rollout schedule for the upgrade. It seems that foldables, the Galaxy S20 series, the Galaxy S10 series, and some mid-rangers will be getting the update in December 2021 and January 2022.
Meanwhile, tablets and even a few budget phones will be getting One UI 4 from February to July of next year. Keep in mind that since the post was deleted, it might be subject to changes. Along with the Android 12 launch, Samsung also rolled out a new update for the Galaxy Watch series with new watch faces.
(Source: Samsung)
