Samsung tests interface with optional app drawer on Galaxy smartphones

Samsung has sent users in China and South Korea a test interface for its Galaxy smartphones. In the new interface, the app drawer is no longer present, although users can turn it on.

Samsung calls the interface “new Note UX,” PlayFulDroid notes. If there is no app drawer, all apps are on home screens, as is the case with Miui from Xiaomi, Emui from Huawei and various other Android skins from mainly Chinese manufacturers. LG also omitted the app drawer from the interface for its G5, but brought it back with an update.

The interface is very different from that of the Galaxy S7 and the S6 series. Icons have a rounded shape, file manager shows visual thumbnails and the settings menu also looks different. In addition, the More text in the top right has given way to Android’s standard three-dot Overflow button. PlayFulDroid says the interface will eventually come to all recent high-end Galaxy phones. It is unknown whether that should only happen in China and South Korea or in all countries. Until now, Samsung has equalized the interface worldwide.

The interface is part of the Galaxy Beta Program. It is not the first time that the manufacturer shows a different interface. Samsung presented Good Lock this spring, an alternative system interface for its high-end smartphones.