Samsung has introduced the next-gen of its virtual assistant, Bixby, with the release of the W25 and W25 Flip foldable phones in China. This updated Bixby is smarter and can understand natural language better to make it easier to use.

Users of some new high-end Samsung appliances are already enjoying this advanced version of Bixby. The Korean tech giant may bring it to more Galaxy devices globally with the release of One UI 7 in 2025.

The new Bixby is powered by an advanced technology called LLMs (large language models). It helps understand natural language better and handle multiple commands at once. It can now understand and respond to more complex commands.

For example, if you say, “It’s cloudy outside. What should I wear to work today?” Bixby will tell you the weather and suggest you wear a raincoat if it looks like rain. If you then ask, “How much time will it take to get there?” Bixby will know you’re asking about your workplace and will give you directions and travel time.

Moreover, the new feature of Bixby is the ability to understand what’s on your screen. If you’re chatting with a friend and they mention a place to meet, you can ask Bixby to “navigate here,” and it will automatically find the location on your screen and start navigation.

The next-gen Samsung Bixby also has a new, modern design. The interface takes up the full screen and allows you to interact with it using both text and voice.

The fresh design offers helpful suggestions at the top of the screen and can be gathered anytime, no matter what app you’re using. Whether you need help converting a webpage into your language or creating a document, Bixby can assist with various tasks. Stay tuned for more updates.

In the past few years, Samsung has revamped the lock screen with numerous customization features and the One UI 7 launch will make it more interactive with compact live app widgets.

Live apps run in the background, unlike all apps, these have interactive elements. Therefore, the system doesn’t kill or limit their features when you push them in the background.

For example, in the Media Player app, when you start a song and lock your device, the song keeps on playing. When you wake the device, the lock screen will show you media controls. In that way, you don’t need to unlock the device to play/pause or change the track.

Such widgets are available in the existing One UI version, which makes it quite convenient. However, Samsung has planned a new upgrade for this section to make these lock screen widgets compact and intuitive.

Compact Live App Activities

Samsung One UI 7 is still far away from launch but an early leak from AndroidHeadlines has some new information, especially for the lock screen. A few seconds clip has uncovered a tiny detail on the bottom side of the display.

The lock screen has new compact widgets in between the phone and camera shortcuts. These widgets have buttons. The background has round corners to reflect One UI 7’s user interface and the leak showed three widgets:

• Music – Has a thumbnail on the left and back, pause/play, and next buttons.
• Recorder – Contains a recording timer and a stop button.
• Clock – This widget shows an active timer, total time, and ETA clock time along with a pause/resume button.

Samsung One UI 7 Compact Stackable Live App Widgets (Source – Androidheadlines)

Stackable

In One UI 6 and before, the lock screen will show you large widgets stretching from left to right and in a list view. In the most recent version, you will only see app icons. Once tapped, the system will expand the notification panel to show you the live activity or message notifications.

One UI 7 appears to have a new solution for this scenario. Instead of relying only on icons, the system could now separate live activities from other static app notifications.

With this hybrid approach, the system will show you the compact widgets at the bottom and If you have different live apps running simultaneously, the lock screen will stack them just like photos and you can swipe them to see the other live app activities.

Meanwhile, you can still tap on the notification icons to expand the large widget and use it as usual.

Comparison with iOS

Apple also has live activities and these look identical to what Samsung has to offer with the existing One UI version. When a user starts a timer, it appears right on the lock screen with a few controls.

However, compact live app widgets are likely to surpass that experience with Samsung One UI 7.

One UI 7 Launch Date

The Korean tech giant is planning to launch the One UI 7 beta program for public testers and it’s officially expected to debut with the Samsung Galaxy S25 series in Early 2025. Read more about One UI 7 here.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, it’s important to make sure your device is receiving regular security updates. These updates are essential for protecting your phone from security risks, bugs, and other vulnerabilities. In this article, you can check whether your Samsung Galaxy device is eligible for monthly updates.

Samsung regularly updates its software update plan for Galaxy devices. Some newly launched devices may be added to the monthly update schedule, while others might be moved to quarterly updates or removed entirely, depending on their update cycle.

Monthly security updates are essential for keeping your personal data safe. These updates fix different-level vulnerabilities from both Google and Samsung to make your device more secure and stable.

To ensure your device stays secure, it’s important to check and install these updates regularly. For that, you just need to visit Settings, tap on Software Update, and click on the Download and Install option.

November 2024 Update Plan: Major Changes

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and Galaxy S20 FE 5G have been moved from the monthly update plan to the quarterly update plan. In addition, the Galaxy A22e will no longer receive software updates, as it has completed its update cycle.

Samsung devices eligible for Monthly Updates:

The Korean tech giant continues to provide monthly security updates for several popular Galaxy devices. To find out if your Samsung device is included in the monthly updates plan, check the list below.

Galaxy foldable series 

• Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G
• Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G
• Galaxy Z Fold 4
• Galaxy Z Flip 4
• Galaxy Z Fold 5
• Galaxy Z Flip 5
• Galaxy Z Fold 6
• Galaxy Z Flip 6
• W23
• W23 Flip
• W24
• W24 Flip
• W25
• W25 Flip
• Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition

Galaxy S Series

• Galaxy S21 5G
• Galaxy S21+ 5G
• Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G
• Galaxy S21 FE 5G
• Galaxy S22
• Galaxy S22+
• Galaxy S22 Ultra
• Galaxy S23
• Galaxy S23+
• Galaxy S23 Ultra
• Galaxy S23 FE
• Galaxy S24
• Galaxy S24+
• Galaxy S24 Ultra
• Galaxy S24 FE

Galaxy A series

• Galaxy A53 5G
• Galaxy A54 5G
• Galaxy A55 5G

Galaxy X Cover series

• Galaxy Xcover5
• Galaxy Xcover6 Pro
• Galaxy Xcover7

*This list is based on Samsung’s November 2024 security update plan.

November 2024 Update Plan: Samsung offers security patches for over 140 Galaxy devices