The pandemic changed our relationship with our phones and the Samsung update accordingly

the COVID-19 pandemic it forced us to work, attend school and socialize from home, which means that our technology reached a new level of importance in our lives. Although the confinements ended, the time we spent at home in 2020 gave Samsung many ideas on how smartphone the experience could be improved.

Those conclusions appear in One UI 4, Samsung’s next great software update, which was released earlier this month starting in the Galaxy S21 Serie.

“We looked at the pre-existing features and understood what was getting the most use due to the pandemic and strengthened it,” Hyesoon Sally Jeong, Samsung vice president and head of framework research and development, told CNET through a translator.

The update is mainly focused on improving areas such as privacy, ease of use, personalization and communication, elements that Samsung noticed it had become particularly important as many people started spending more time on their phones during the shutdown period. It’s another example of the broader change that has occurred in the tech industry as companies began to adapt their products to facilitate remote working and socializing.

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One of those features in the Samsung update is the ability to record audio and video during conference calls, an addition that was inspired by remote learning. “We realized that our users might want to record the audio or video while having remote interactions with their teachers or students,” Jeong said. “Therefore, teachers may want to record the audio or video conference to monitor the lessons or sessions they have taught the students.”

But perhaps the biggest change that influenced Samsung’s strategy in designing the One UI 4 was the increased amount of time we spend on our smartphones. A recent study published in the JAMA Pediatrics Journal found that screen time doubled among teens during the pandemic, not including virtual learning.

As such, Samsung is trying to make its smartphones easier to see for long periods of time with cosmetic updates in One UI 4. “In terms of visual design, we make a lot of design-related decisions based on the key principle of convenience,” Hyun Kim, head of Samsung’s main user experience group, also told CNET through a translator. “Because screen time increased, eye comfort [and] reducing eye fatigue has become more important than ever. “

The company made cosmetic changes to its software, such as reducing the number of colors in the user interface and adjusting the size and layout of fonts. It also worked with Google to enable screen dimming that is darker than previously possible when using the phone in low light environments. Samsung’s emoji pair feature, which allows you to send two emojis at once, was also triggered by the way we rely on our phones to communicate and socialize in 2020.

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Samsung’s software update is just one example of the pandemic’s lasting impact on the way technology companies design and develop their products. That influence can be seen in Apple iOS 15 software, too. One of the main features of the update is SharePlay, which allows you to watch movies and TV shows or listen to music with other people through FaceTime. Such functionality would have been particularly useful during the shutdown period, when many people were looking for ways to host virtual movie nights. Zoom.

CES 2021 it also showcased the best efforts of tech companies to make products that reflect the lifestyle changes caused by the pandemic. In addition to Razer’s high-tech face mask and a temperature-taking buzzer, we also saw laptops with better cameras that apparently were designed for remote work.

In addition to the aforementioned additions, One UI 4 also offers features like a new privacy panel, the ability to choose whether to share your precise location with apps, more uniform widgets with rounded corners, and more color palettes to personalize your phone’s theme. . The software is now available for the Galaxy S21 lineup and will soon be coming to older Galaxy S phones, Galaxy A phones and Samsung folding devices and tablets.