One UI 6.1 is here! Here's what's new

One UI 6.1 is here! Here’s what’s new،

Samsung has just revealed its big hitters for 2024: the Galaxy S24 phones! And with them we get an updated version of the One UI software that Sammy has developed over the years.

Well, it's more of a mild update – until now we were at One UI 6.0. Now we are getting One UI 6.1 on the Galaxy S24 series. So what's up ?

Mainly AI tricks – Samsung's new goal for 2024. So while we didn't get to see any new interface elements or major settings changed, we do get a list of AI-assisted features, some of which are a first for any smartphone.

New features in One UI 6.1

Live translation during a phone call

And that’s the first one we’re talking about. THE Galaxy S24 phones will be able to translate speech during a live call. One person speaks, the AI translates, the other speaks. It's all on-device and will support 13 languages at launch.

Chat support on Samsung keyboard

Along the same lines, the Samsung keyboard itself will have new AI features, helping you translate into different languages, proofread or rephrase your text. Since this is a feature built into the keyboard, you should be able to use it in any app, whether it's email, social media, or texting.

Generative photo editing

A 6.1 user interface is here! Here are the new features

As we saw with Google's Magic Editor, generative photo editing will allow you to move or remove objects from a photo, even subtle ones like highlights or shadows, and ask the AI to reconstruct the background based on prediction and pattern recognition.

Transform any video into slow motion

To watch a video (any video) in the Gallery app, you can simply long-press it. Galaxy AI will generate frames between existing frames and slow down the frames. So you instantly get smooth slow motion from any clip, as if it was shot in slow motion in the first place!

Circle to search with Google

Any image you see on your screen, from any app or feed, will be searchable. Simply hold the home button and tap or circle the item in question. The phone should, in theory, recognize whether it's a building, landmark, animal, or other object, and display the appropriate Google search results.

A few questions here: a) how well will this work, of course. But also b) how to do this if we don't have a home button (if gesture navigation is enabled)?

Recorder Transcription

Another feature we first saw with December's Google Pixel 8 Pro feature. The S24 family will be able to transcribe voice recordings, for example long meetings. Then it can even generate a short summary with bullet points etc.

Notes support for Samsung Notes

In the same spirit, the Galaxy S24 Ultra will be able to sift through your long (and perhaps messy) notes to summarize them and extract or highlight the most important information. It will also be able to create predictive models and order your notes based on usage patterns. We are very curious how exactly this would work.

Android Auto Support

In Android Auto mode, the AI will work to keep you informed without spamming you with multiple messages. If a conversation is in progress, the AI will summarize it and provide the most important information at a glance. It will also offer context-sensitive buttons to quickly reply, set your browsing location, or share your ETA with loved ones – all contextual and based on messages that have been sent to your previous one.

Does my phone get One UI 6.1?

Is One UI 6.1 coming to older Samsung phones? Will the Galaxy S23 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 5 benefit from the new AI features? Great questions! Unfortunately, Samsung is being a little tight-lipped on these details as we speak.

Our best guess is that yes, some of these features should trickle down (or return, if you will), as we don't think they all require the super-smart Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to work properly. Plus, if you own a year-old Samsung flagship, it would only be fair: these things aren't cheap and your purchase is still fairly new.