Samsung has improved its software game over the years by switching from TouchWiz to Samsung Experience UI. The new UI is so much better than TouchWiz as it brings a smooth experience to the users. As Google has recently released the latest version of Android, the South-Korean giant is now working on bringing the update to its devices. The company has already rolled out a beta version of the upcoming update for the Galaxy Note 8 and S8. As Samsung always likes to spice up the things by tweaking the Android operating system, there are a few changes everyone expected but did not make their way at least in the Beta version of the update.
1.) Custom Icon Packs
Samsung already has its own theme engine which works via their own Theme Store. The store surely has a variety of things to customize your smartphone. However, Google Play Store arguably has more options which are much better than that of the the company's own Store. It would have been so great to see a custom icon pack option right into Samsung's provided launcher. As of now, third-party launchers do support custom icon packs but it would have been better if it came to the stock launcher of the smartphone. Some companies like OnePlus, BlackBerry and Razer already have an option to change the icon pack in their stock launcher.
2.) A Remappable Button
Most of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8 owners agree on the point that the Bixby button is a disappointment. Bixby is not as good as the Google Assistant and many would have preferred to remap the Bixby button to either the Google Assistant or an application of their choice. If the company wants to reserve the button to their own system, they could have given choice to users where they can at least open system apps instead of third-party ones or could have used it for some actions like capturing photos in the camera app.
3.) Home Screen colours as per the Wallpaper
With the new Android Oreo beta update, Samsung has given an option where users can switch the colour accent of the Lock Screen to match the wallpaper. However, the company forgot about the home screen where the things remain the same.
4.) Live Focus on Samsung Galaxy S8
Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 8 a few months after the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus which gave them an ample amount of time to work on new and better camera hardware. The Galaxy Note 8 comes with a dual-camera setup at the back which gives the phone a feature called Live Focus.
Also Read: How to speed up your Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus
Samsung could have brought a similar feature to the Galaxy S8 via a software update. The live focus feature wouldn't have worked as good as the Note 8 but this is a most welcome feature by the S8 owners. Not to forget, Google Pixel 2 managed to pull off a similar feature without adding an extra lens.
5.) Improvements to S-Pen
We expected Samsung to make some improvements to the S-Pen on the Note 8 at least on the software front. The company could have provided a set of extra features with the first major software update on the Galaxy Note 8.
However, we can still cross our fingers as the stable update of Android Oreo is still under development. The Samsung devices will start getting the Android Oreo update with the Experience UI 9 update from early 2018.
