Owners of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones will be getting Android Oreo thanks to the 9.0 beta version of Samsung Experience.
Now, S8 and S8+ users will be able to upgrade from Android 7.1 Nougat to Android 8.0 Nougat.
Oreo brings with it a number of improvements, including notification channels, dots and snoozing, Adaptive Icons, new emojis and more.
However, it’s worth noting that one feature Oreo Samsung Experience 9.0 is missing is Project Treble, a modularized framework that simplifies the software update process for device manufacturers.
Oreo is not the only change that the Samsung Experience 9.0 beta includes, though.
Samsung Keyboard
The beta improves the Samsung Keyboard by adding a Google-style toolbar on top to make popular settings more easily accessible. The Keyboard also now features GIF creation shortcuts and four “high contrast” options to improve screen visibility.
New edge lighting effects
One of the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus’s defining features is Edge Lighting, which brightens the AMOLED screens’ curves whenever notifications come through.
In Samsung Experience 9.0, users have additional Edge Lighting options, such as a subtler glow alternative and a glitter effect that plays random colours.
Lock screen customization
Oreo brings a number of lock screen customization options, including new colouring options to match the lock screen clock colours with the phone’s background. As well, the clock widget’s time format can be changed to display hours, minutes and seconds, instead of just hours and minutes.
A number of smaller changes have been made as well, including:
- Increased speed and security for Samsung Pay
- The stock video player now has ‘Auto-Repeat’ and ‘2x speed’ controls
- A ‘sticky’ notification now tracks steps in Samsung Health.
- The digital clock widget can be tapped to pull up the Clock app, with landscape mode and timer sounds now supported as well
The full breakdown of additions can be on XDA.
