Samsung announces the One UI 5: Android 13 in iOS sauce

After the first advances in July and the beta program started in August, with an official press release Samsung has finally officially unveiled his One UI 5 based on Android 13which will be released “in the coming weeks”.

The news introduced they are quite numerous, and apart from the presentation in the usual style positively utopian “Corporate Memphis“that big companies seem to like it so much, some of them do inspire quite clearly a iOS 16. We are talking about the lock screen and of a kind of Full immersion for customizing notifications (something this year is very fashionable), but there is much more underneath.

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Let’s start with the most obvious novelty, the lock screen. If with iOS 16 Apple has finally taken a cue from possibility of customization of Android, its interpretation must have particularly liked the executives of Samsung. There lock screen of the One UI 5 (already appeared a couple of weeks ago) works in a very similar way to that of the apple, as it is enough to press it for a long time to access the options to change the background, which can also be set with a short video, and the time widgets, plus new colors and graphics options.

But the similarities also extend in a similar way to that Full immersion. Now in fact the function “Modes” allows you to create custom settings to filter notifications based on what you are doing, from sleep and relaxation to exercise and driving. For example, while sleep, you can deactivate the sounds and activate the Dark mode can help you relax, or while exercise you can turn off notifications. Sound familiar? Us too.

Samsung’s Routine function has instead been further enhanced, despite having lost the Bixby name, and now allows you to recognize more situations to start automations, such as the connection to a mobile hotspot or activation of airplane mode.

Widgets were also improvedand there’s a new one (Apple users here too will get a feel of déjà vu) that offers smart suggestions of usage-based apps and action recommendations.

But Samsung is also able to propose news, and here is the new One UI 5 introduces Bixby Text Callwhich allows you to answer and communicate a phone call via SMS. Are you in a noisy place, or can’t you speak? Bixby reads the text you write to the person calling and, in the same way, converts his voice to text.

The feature, while interesting, is currently only available in Korean (in korea it had already appeared with One UI 4.1.1), while at the beginning of 2023 it should also arrive in English. For the other languagesSamsung has unfortunately not released information.

Samsung claimed that the One UI 5 will come out of beta and will be released in next weeks. Presumably, the first to receive it will be the devices of the series Galaxy S22Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4, and then arrive on the others (below you will find the complete list).