Android 13 based One UI 5 leak reveals upcoming features

Source: Pocketnow

Samsung is expected to launch the One UI 5.0 beta program sometime later this month. While the Korean giant is yet to officially reveal anything about One UI 5.0, 9to5Google has been able to get access to an early version of the software, revealing the features we can expect from the upcoming Samsung update. Here are all the features that have been spotted in the leaked build of One UI 5.0.

Leaked One UI 5 Features

Just as we expected, the leaked One UI 5 is based on the latest Android 13 update. Samsung expected to roll out One UI 5.0 to all the eligible devices sometime in October. The list of supported devices will contain the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Z Flip 3, Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, Galaxy S22 Ultra, and many more Galaxy smartphones.

However, before we move on to the leaked One UI 5.0 features, we should note that this software has not been publically released by Samsung so there might be some changes that will show up in the public beta or some features that might be removed from the build. But, for now, this is what the next Samsung Galaxy smartphones' software update is looking like:

1. New Notification Center Design

Source: 9to5Google

Starting with the notification center, Samsung has slightly changed the way notifications are shown. App icons are now bigger in size and there is a subtle tweak to the opacity of the quick settings and notification shade as well. Quick Settings icons are a bit smaller (and spaced out) now. Apart from these, there are only minor changes to the notification shade.

2. Copy/Paste Text from Images

Source: 9to5Google

This is one of the features that Samsung is borrowing from Apple, though it already existed (sort of) in the form of Bixby Vision. Just like how iPhones running iOS 15 (and above) can recognize text in the images, Samsung has also added OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to the Gallery app that lets you select and copy text from photos. Whenever your Galaxy smartphone will recognize text in the image, a button will show up in the bottom right corner enabling you to pull the text from the image.

Samsung is also adding OCR to the Keyboard app. This means that you can just hold up the camera to anything, extract text from it, and add it to your email, messages, or anything that requires text input. This is a pretty nifty feature on iPhone and we're happy to see it coming to Galaxy smartphones with One UI 5.0.

3. Security and privacy hub

Source: 9to5Google

Google announced its "Security and privacy hub" when it launched Android 13 at Google I/O (left). This page shows the users a color-coded indicator of their smartphone's safety status and provides them with guidance and steps that they can take to boost their smartphone's security.

Samsung has also added the Security and privacy hub to the One UI 5.0 settings (right), though Max Weinbach claims it's a proprietary version and works slightly differently. This page showcases all of your device's accounts, lock screen security, passwords, and other privacy features on one screen. It also scans when an app is abusing permissions and then recommends you to take an action.

4. Stock Android-like Permissions Pop-up

Source: 9to5Google

Samsung, instead of using its own One UI-themed permission pop-up, is using Google's stock default Android permission dialogs in One UI 5.0. Though this could be a feature Samsung is still working on, it could also be possible that the company is looking to speed up the update process by not changing things that don't need to be changed.

5. New Gestures in the Labs Section

Source: 9to5Google

Samsung has added new multitasking gestures in the Labs section in One UI 5.0. One of the new gestures allows the users to access the split-screen view by swiping up from the bottom using two fingers. There's another gesture that allows the users to change the view to a popup window by swiping in from the top right corner. Max notes that both the features don't work in the leaked build, but they should when Samsung launches the public beta.

6. Other Features

Source: 9to5Google

There are a number of minor changes across One UI 5.0:

• The About Phone section now shows the image of the device you're using.
• Samsung Notes now supports collaborations. You can now share notes with up to 100 people and everyone can see changes as they're made.
• Overall speed and smoothness of animations and transitions have also been improved.
• There's a separate toggle to enable/disable UWB (Ultra-Wideband) in the Connections section of the Settings app.
• The system also shows currently active apps in the quick settings area.

One UI 5.0 in no way is a major upgrade. There are a number of minor improvements across the board, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. With the new OS, Samsung is focusing more on the update speed rather than cramming not-so-useful features in it. This is, in particular, evident as the company is planning to launch the public beta version later this month and stable update alongside Google's Android 13 release. Are you excited about One UI 5.0? Let us know in the comments section below!