Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The best One UI 6.1 features for the Galaxy S24 series Samsung didn’t tell you about!”.
Yesterday we saw Samsung launch the Galaxy s24 series at Galaxy unpacked here in San Jose California. At that event, Samsung went over a ton of new features coming through Galaxy Ai, and it also touched on a few features coming to one UI 6.1: the software that debuts on the Galaxy s24 series. However, it didn’t mention a few things that we thought were pretty notable, so in this article I’m going to go over five things in one UI 6.1. That Samsung didn’t mention, add unpacked and stay tuned to the end, because I’m also going to talk about one thing that Samsung took away from one UI 6.1. A huge new feature that Samsung didn’t announce at Galaxy. Unpacked is generative AI wallpapers. This, as it sounds, allows you to input text, prompts create a completely AI generated image and then use that as your background on your home screen.
If this looks familiar, it’s it’s because this is the exact same system that Google uses on the pixel 8 series, which launched in October last year. All Samsung has done here is pretty much just skin it over with a bunch of oneui features and fonts, and things like that to make it more familiar for Samsung fans. Essentially, it does the exact same thing: you choose from predefined choices to create some sort of artwork, and then you apply that artwork. As your background do note, though, that just like with the pixel 8 series, this needs a data connection to work. It does not process the AI generated imagery on device, it has to go to Samsung servers and then Samsung servers create the AI generated art that you’ve requested, and then you download that it doesn’t actually happen on the device itself. This is interesting, though, because the Asus Rog Phone 8 has pretty much the same processor that you’ll find in the Galaxy s24 series and that phone can do on device.
Ai generated imagery so it’ll be interesting to see if Samsung eventually rolls out a update that allows you to do this on device at some point in the future to get started. Creating AI generated artwork on your Samsung Galaxy s24 Device just head to wallpapers in style and then to change wallpapers and then choose the generative icon. So you can get started by entering your text, prompts and make something truly unique for your smartphone there’s.
Another wallpaper related feature: that’s been added to one UI 6.1 and that’s photo ambient wallpaper. So what is this mean? This is essentially a way for you to determine. What’S going on with the weather, simply by looking at the background of your phone. Essentially, you give Samsung a photo and then Samsung is able to Overlay weather data onto that photo. So you can just give a quick glance at your photo and see that it’s snowing or raining or sunny or cloudy or or whatever the weather happens, to be in your specific area.
This is a really cool feature and it could be a lot of fun, but it’s part of the lab section of one UI y 6.1. So in order to activate it, you’ll need to go to settings, Advanced features, labs and then activate photo ambient wallpaper in there. Then you need to select a wallpaper, just like you would, by going to wallpapers in style and selecting a new one, but instead of choosing one of the pre-selected ones, you’ll then choose the photo ambient option and then you’ll be able to see we all over your Background, regardless of what the background is, this is a really interesting feature, but since it’s in last AB you’re probably going to face some issues with it, it may not look great over some images and some things may break here and there, but that’s just the way. Labs features, work lock, screen widgets also got a cool update in one UI 6.1 on oneui 6 and earlier you can add, lock screen widgets to your phone, but in order to see them, you have to tap on the clock icon to pull them up.
That’S no longer necessary with one UI 6.1, at least when it comes to certain widgets. Now the widgets appear on the lock screen screen automatically as soon as you pull it up. You can only see them in this tiny little area, but you can see lots of cool, add a glance features without having to unlock your phone or even tap it before seeing them. There’S some cool widgets in here, such as battery life, Samsung Health connections, seeing your next calendar event and more.
This is also really cool, because for the first time you don’t have to worry about actually touching your phone to get some crucial information. You can just quickly glance down at it at the lock screen and see whatever it is. You need to some people may notice that these look a lot like iPhone, walk, screen, widgets and that’s probably, by Design. Unfortunately, once again, Samsung needs to try everything that Apple’s tried.
It’S just the way that it goes. Another cool feature is the always on display of one UI 6.1. This is the aod on the Galaxy s24 Ultra notice.
How my background is still there. I don’t have just black and then the text this is actually the lock screen wallpaper. This is on by default. Now, so now you don’t have just that black screen and boring text on it.
You actually have the wallpaper that you set on your lock screen. That appears there. This is pretty cool, but it might use a bit more battery life than just that fully black screen, so you might be making a little bit of a trade-off here. This setting is on by default, but you can turn it off if you want to, if you’re interested in Saving that battery just go to settings lock, screen and aod, always on display and then toggle off, the show lock screen wallpaper setting. But if you want to have that lock screen background, which I think looks pretty cool, just leave the default setting alone and it’ll automatically.
Do it there’s also a completely new application on the Galaxy s24 series that you won’t find, at least yet on any other Galaxy Device? It is the Samsung find app. This is basically a One-Stop shop for all of your tracking needs. There are three tabs within the app people, devices and items the people setting allows you to share your own location with someone else. This is similar to a feature that already exists in Google Maps, allowing you to share your location for a certain period of time with anyone that you choose in the devices section. This, obviously, is all of your Samsung devices. This is where your Galaxy phone, your Galaxy Tab and all your other Galaxy products would show up.
You can also see devices here that you have control over like those that are in your family if you have kids for example. Finally, the item section is where you’ll track things that have a smart tag attached to them, whether that’s a Galaxy smart tag or the more recent Galaxy smart tag. 2. Once you attach an item to it, you can label it and say I’m looking for my luggage and it’ll tell you the exact location of your luggage as long as it still has that smart tag attached to it. As I said before, this app comes pre-loaded on the Galaxy s24 series, but once you upgrade to one UI 6.1 on other devices in the Galaxy ecosystem, you’ll be able to manually download this from the Galaxy store. So this is a feature that is exclusive to the Galaxy s24 and one UI 6.1 right now, but eventually everyone is going to have access to it, which is good because this seems like a really useful feature for people who are constantly losing their Galaxy stuff or Have a lot of Galaxy smart tags and want a nice place where they’re all located and can be easily accessed at any time.
So that was five things that Samsung has introduced to one UI 6.1 and it didn’t announce a Galaxy unpacked. But I do want to focus on the one thing that I promised I would talk about, which is something that was taken away from one UI 6.1, and that, of course, is the ability to hide the navigation bar. The navigation bar appears at the bottom of your display and previously in other oneui versions. You were able to hide this if you thought it was an isore, but now because of circle to search, you can’t do that anymore in order to activate Circle, to search when you’re, using gesture navigation.
You have to long press on that bar and, if you’ve hidden, the bar, you can’t do that so Circle to search has basically made it so that the navigation bar has to be there for most people out there who have transitioned to just G navigation. This might be a bit of a problem, so unfortunately, there’s nothing. You can do about this circle. To search is going to be active and you can’t deactivate it and then add back in the navigation bar.
So if you were really attached to the idea of not having that little bar at the bottom of your display, unfortunately, once you upgrade to oneui 6.1 you’re going to have to deal with it. Those are the most interesting changes we’ve seen with oneui 6.1. So far, if you’re excited about getting this software on your Samsung phone – and you don’t have a Galaxy s – 24, not to worry Samsung has promised that it’s going to bring it to a selection of devices. Before the end of the first half of this year, the devices Samsung has committed to are the Galaxy s23 series: the Galaxy s23 Fe, the Galaxy Tab S9 for tablets, the Galaxy Z, fold 5 for foldables and the Galaxy Z, flip 5.
Also a foldable. Those phones are guaranteed to get one UI 6.1 before the end of the first half of this year. If you don’t have one of those devices, oneui 6.1 is probably still coming to you. It’S just that Samsung can’t promise that it’s going to be in the first half of this year.
That’S a wrap for this one thanks so much for hanging out with us. We have a ton, more content coming on the Galaxy s24 series and oneui, so stay tuned right here to the Android authority, YouTube channel, because there’s a lot more on the way. .