One UI 2.0 wishlist: Top features we want in Samsung’s new UI on Android 10

Samsung One UI 2.0

It’s been a month since the official unveiling of Android 10. After Google, Essential, OnePlus, Huawei, and Xiaomi have released their respected iterations of Google’s latest mobile OS.

Companies, who are yet to release the update, have at least given us a hint of what to expect; except for one. One of the biggest names in the business, Samsung, is yet to announce a tentative release date, and we have no idea how good or bad the Android 10-based One UI 2.0 would be.

RelatedWhen will Samsung Android 10 update come out?

Last year, Samsung overhauled the user interface of its smartphone lineup by introducing the Android Pie-based One UI. It looked a lot lighter than TouchWiz UI and came with a bunch of useful goodies. This year, Samsung will bring the second iteration of the famed user interface — One UI 2.0 — and we’re expecting some pretty great changes.

In this section, we’ll make a little wishlist, jot down features we want to see in One UI 2.0. It might get a bit out of hand, but we can’t help being hopeful. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.

Our Wishlist for One UI 2.0

A flawless Night mode

Android 10 has finally brought the highly-anticipated system-wide dark theme. Now, we have had this feature in One UI (Night mode) for over a year, so, Samsung won’t need to change too much there. However, there have been a few issues lately, which Samsung needs to iron out. Users have reported missing (unreadable) notification text after waking the device from sleep, which Samsung is yet to address. The issue appears to be with Night mode scheduling, as toggling it off and back on again seems to solve the problem.

This year, as Google has already implemented a Dark theme in Android 10, Samsung should have an easier time dealing with issues related to the feature.

Themes

Apart from the big visual changed we discussed above, Google has also packed in some subtle yet impressive enhancements in Android 10. After banking on 3rd-party themes for ages, Google has introduced its own in Android 10. Well, these “themes” probably aren’t are grand as we’d hoped, but changing accent colors isn’t too bad either.

The current version of One UI doesn’t come with system-wide themes, and we’re hoping things will change for the better in the next iteration. In fact, One UI 2.0 may expand on Android 10’s theme features, in spite of the Themes app that accompanies One UI currently.

RelatedBest Android 10 features

Adhering to Project Mainline

Android 10 isn’t only changing the way our devices look and feel, it also paves the way for faster updates. With its latest release, Google has introduced something called Project Mainline. The new initiative by Google will deliver some security updates through the Play Store, accelerating the rollout process. This way, users won’t have to wait on their carriers to approve and release the updates.

Samsung usually releases its security updates in time, but they aren’t immune to operator-related delays. By adhering to Project Mainline and channeling some updates through the Play Store, Samsung would be able to deliver essential updates faster than ever before.

Smart Reply Support

smart reply in Android 10

With Android 10, Google has rolled out a feature called Smart Reply. It predicts the one word/one phrase replies you could have to a message, letting you reply on the fly, without making you open the app.

Earlier, it was only available for Google apps but is now supported by all messaging apps on Android 10. OnePlus has implemented the feature on its Android 10-based OxygenOS 10, but it only seems to be working for the default messaging app. Samsung is taking its sweet time to roll out One UI 2.0, and we expect the final product to be as flawless as possible.

More Gamer Friendly

Samsung’s Game Launcher is quite a handy tool. It organizes your games and even gives a bunch of options to enhance your experience. We don’t have many complaints in this department, but we still feel Samsung can take a page out of OnePlus’ book and make the Launcher more powerful.

A Native Screen Recorder

In early Android 10 betas, Google sneakily bundled in a native screen recorder. We had to jump a few hoops to access the feature, but it was a welcome change nonetheless. Google disabled the native screen recorder in the final build of Android 10, probably due to stability issues.

We are hoping Samsung is able to incorporate a native Screen Recorder into One UI 2.0. It’s only a good thing then that early leaks did show the presence of a native Screen Recorder, so let’s hope Samsung doesn’t do a Google when final builds are rolled out.

Handy Gestures

Last year, One UI introduced a rather simplistic approach to gesture navigation, implementing swipe up gestures to access Recent apps, go Home, and return to the previous page, respectively.

Android 10 is bringing a reworked gesture-based navigation system, and Samsung is expected to implement the same in One UI 2.0. If executed properly, these gestures can make life a lot easier, and we don’t expect Samsung to stop just there. One UI already has some cool gestures such as Easy Mute, One-handed mode, etc., and we hope to see some handy additions with the introduction of One UI 2.0.

As mentioned earlier, this list only sums up the features we want Samsung to introduce in One UI 2.0. As it isn’t an official indicator of the actual product, do make sure to take it with a grain of salt. As for the official release, rest assured we’ll cover every aspect of it as soon as it comes out.


What changes do you want in One UI 2.0?

Posted by
Sushan

A mediocre engineer hoping to do something extraordinary with his pen (well, keyboard). Loves Pink Floyd, lives football, and is always up for a cup of Americano.