Samsung’s One UI 7 lastly embraces the vertical app drawer

lo and behold, Samsung’s Android 15-based One UI 7’s first beta is lastly out now, and though it’s only out there on the Galaxy S24 sequence (excluding the S24 FE) in Germany, India, Poland, South Korea, the UK, and the US for now, the beta ought to broaden to older flagships and extra areas quickly.

The OS pores and skin, which provides Samsung’s dab of UI modifications and novel options on prime of Android 15’s characteristic set, has an iOS-like really feel to it — full with a brand new ‘Now Bar,’ akin to Apple’s implementation of the Stay Actions widget and a split-up between the notification and Fast Settings drawers. Talking of main modifications, the brand new beta lastly implements an app display tweak that followers have long-been clamoring for — one which brings Samsung’s units nearer to the Pixel expertise.

Associated

Samsung’s long-awaited One UI 7 beta is right here to finish 2024 on a excessive observe

Android 15 for the remainder of us

One UI 7 beta lastly unlocks a vertical app drawer, one thing that Samsung has inherently prevented since its early TouchWiz days. It is value noting that post-update, the brand new drawer is enabled by default, marking a big shift within the firm’s strategy to UI design and the way in which it desires its units for use.

Followers of the previous UI could be completely satisfied to know that regardless that the brand new vertical drawer is enabled by default, you possibly can nonetheless return to the horizontal (paginated) format — the implementation, nonetheless, is not as easy as toggling between “vertical” and “horizontal” layouts. As a substitute, the 2 layouts are tied to the way in which you type your apps.

There’s an ‘Alphabetical order’ (default post-update) that triggers the vertical app drawer, after which there’s the ‘Customized order’ which reverts the app drawer to its basic paginated look.

There is a new place for the search bar

It is value noting that the latter, Customized order, permits you to transfer your apps round, whereas Alphabetical, as its title suggests, will strictly type your apps in line with their first alphabet. You probably have a whole lot of apps in your Galaxy system, utilizing the vertical format will even unlock a right-aligned alphabet scrollbar to skip to the apps that begin with the latter half of the English alphabet. Moreover, folders are nonetheless a factor. Within the new vertical format, folders snap to the highest of the app drawer, whereas in customized order, these folders seem wherever you place them.

Moreover, the app search bar has now been moved to the underside on each layouts, and, not less than for now, there seems to be no method to transfer it again up. App drawer customization could land with subsequent beta variations, although that is simply hypothesis (and a little bit of wishful considering).

Most significantly, the search bar can be the place customers will discover the choice to toggle between the horizontal and vertical layouts. Tapping the three dot icon on the best of the search bar will pull up a panel with ‘Kind,’ ‘Clear up pages,’ and ‘Settings,’ with the choice to toggle between Customized and Alphabetical order conveniently positioned throughout the ‘Kind’ menu.