While the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy Book3 series will be the highlight of Galaxy Unpacked, a significant portion of the event will be dedicated to the former’s software features. If past release cycles are anything to go by, these will be marketed as One UI 5.1, which should make its way to older devices eventually. Roland Quandt managed to discover the entire One UI 5.1 changelog, and it adds some exciting upgrades.
Bixby Text Calls
One of the One UI 5.1 features that stands out from the lot is called “Bixby Text Calls”. It essentially has the virtual assistant answer calls on the user’s behalf, who can then further the conversation via text prompts. It is similar to Google Assistant’s Call Screening function. For now, the service is available only in English and Korean and might not be available in all markets, at least at launch.
Camera and Gallery
Samsung’s marketing material for the Galaxy S23 series focused heavily on its cameras. So it comes as a surprise when there are surprisingly few camera-centric features in One UI 5.1. Users can now directly access the Export Raw app from the Gallery. Samsung likely has more up its sleeve and we should find out on February 1.
The Gallery app gets quite a few QoL improvements in One UI 5.1, such as the ability to share an entire album with family members. By default, each member gets 5 GB of storage in the shared gallery, but one can probably upgrade that via cloud storage. Gallery will also let users search for people using their faces, tags, and locations. Those with messy screenshots folders can now choose where to save a specific screenshot every time it is taken.
Connectivity
One UI 5.1 aims to tighten the Samsung ecosystem, attempting to bring it a step closer to Apple. One can now use a Galaxy Book’s keyboard/mouse across a Galaxy tablet and a smartphone. Samsung Notes can now be shared and worked upon by multiple people at once. One UI 5.1 also lets users sync their Samsung Internet tabs across devices. Finally, one can control the media output to multiple speakers via the quick access toolbar. Other One UI 5.1 features include faster first-time setup for Samsung phones, new Samsung DeX features, a more detailed weather/battery widget, and more. One can check out the full changelog over at Winfuture.de.
I’ve been an avid PC gamer since the age of 8. My passion for gaming eventually pushed me towards general tech, and I got my first writing gig at the age of 19. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and have worked in the manufacturing industry and a few other publications like Wccftech before joining Notebookcheck in November 2019. I cover a variety of topics including smartphones, gaming, and computer hardware.
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