One UI 6, Samsung confirms: seamless updates will arrive

The One UI 5.0 based on Android 13 is almost upon us, but there is already reason to look forward to One UI 6: apparently, Samsung has finally convinced itself to adopt i seamless update: it’s an important change considering it’s the biggest Android smartphone maker on the market – and by far. Of course, not that he had many other options: with the presentation of Android 13, Google made it mandatory to implement it. The rule is not retroactive, so it will only apply from native Android 13 devices onwards; It remains to be seen whether Samsung will decide to make the feature available for older products as well, but we’re quite skeptical – few manufacturers have done so, so far. Not even Google.

Seamless updates have been around for several years now, and are a solution for distributing and applying system updates. In summary, the idea is to create two equal partitions, say A and B. The partitions contain the same data, but the system only starts one of the two, say A; when a system update arrives, it is installed in the background on the inactive partition, so in our example the B. Once the procedure is completed, just reboot the system to make B, with the new update, the active partition; over the next few days, always in the background, even A will be updated by copying B to perfection, and so on.

The solution has some advantages and some disadvantages; in the foreground we have:

• Pros: installation times. In fact, a reboot is enough to apply a system update. Device downtime is therefore reduced to a minimum.
• Pros: redundancy. If the update fails for some reason and the system fails to boot, you can reboot with the partition not yet updated.
• Cons: space. The internal memory has to download a few GB overall to keep active a partition that is essentially “always inert”; However, it is worth pointing out that it is not a complete and complete copy of the entire operating system, only the part that is affected by the update (thus excluding many of the pre-installed apps, for example).

In any case, Samsung has limited itself to saying that One UI 6.0 will arrive next year, without elaborating further. During the interview with colleagues from Android Authority, Vice President Hyesoon “Sally” Jeong was able to touch other topicswhich we summarize briefly below:

• The One UI brand it will continue to exist at least as long as Jeong works for Samsung.
• As for One UI 5, the goal is to distribute it to all compatible high-end smartphones by the end of the year.
• One UI will not arrive on Chromebooks and Samsung smart TVs.
• Samsung confirms the I work closely with Google for Android development. Android Stock and One UI will always look different, but will incorporate their respective major features and inventions when they see fit.
• Samsung has greatly improved its update management practices, and has stated that it is not just a matter of establishing trust with its users, but also of sustainability. If users use smartphones for longer, it means that fewer products end up in landfills and therefore Samsung’s environmental impact is reduced.