Samsung has been identified for taking inspiration from the iPhone, nevertheless it’s often for the most effective. Nonetheless, with the Galaxy S25 and One UI 7, Samsung borrowed from one of many iPhone’s largest weaknesses: notifications.
Many long-time iPhone house owners can admit that notifications are not Apple’s strong suit. Android, then again, has excelled with notifications from day one. They’re easy but highly effective and versatile sufficient to suit your particular person wants. So why on Earth would Samsung undertake some iOS-style notification options? Let’s check out what they did.
Stacked Notifications
One of the crucial noticeable modifications in One UI 7 is the shift to “stacked” notifications from the identical app. Android does group notifications from the identical app collectively, nevertheless it’s often a listing of topic traces on one card–as seen in One UI 6 within the first picture above. This fashion, you may see a number of notifications with out increasing the cardboard.
As you may see within the second picture above, iPhone notifications are grouped together as cards in a stack. So, when you have a number of Gmail notifications, for instance, you may solely see the latest electronic mail earlier than increasing. That is precisely the way it now works on One UI 7, as you may see within the third picture.
The iOS fashion is solely far much less environment friendly. Beforehand, I may see a number of notifications from an app grouped collectively in a pleasant, compact card. There was no must increase the cardboard until I needed to take motion on one of many notifications. Now, I have to increase the stack each time simply to see what’s all there.
Notification Channels Turned Off
Maybe probably the most baffling change is the disabling of notification categories (or “channels”) by default. Android’s notification classes are what makes them so highly effective. It lets you management which varieties of notifications you obtain from every app.
One massive annoyance with iPhone notifications is a scarcity of tremendous controls. Within the system settings, you get an all-or-nothing toggle, and you must hope the app itself has extra choices. However on Android, you’re supposed to have the ability to toggle classes from the system settings, and most apps have supported this for years. It’s very odd to show this off as an out-of-the-box expertise.
Lock Display Notifications Hidden
If there’s one space the place iPhone notifications particularly battle, it’s the lock display screen. Once you unlock an iPhone, you instantly see “Latest Notifications.” However the subsequent time you unlock the display screen, they’ll be gone, moved out of sight to the “Notification Heart.” So, you see an emtpy display screen like the primary picture above though you do have notifications..
Fortunately, Samsung hasn’t gone far sufficient to repeat the iPhone’s bizarre method for lock display screen notifications, nevertheless it did make them lots much less seen. The Galaxy S25 defaults to solely exhibiting notification icons within the standing bar on the lock display screen (second picture). That is tremendous as an possibility, however making it the default threw me for a loop at first. In earlier variations of One UI, the icons have been extra prominently positioned underneath the clock (third picture). The Galaxy S25 felt like I didn’t see notifications on the lock display screen in any respect.
Notification Panel and Fast Settings Separated
Lastly, the notification panel and fast settings have been separated. This transformation, specifically, seems like a direct copy of the iPhone’s Notification Heart (first picture) and Management Heart (second picture). It really works precisely the identical on the Galaxy S25: swipe down on the left aspect of the display screen for notifications (third picture) and swipe down from the precise aspect for fast settings (fourth picture).
Technically, there’s nothing fallacious with this when you get used to it, nevertheless it’s inferior to Android’s default habits, which provides you a number of fast toggles and your notifications in a single panel (fifth picture). It’s like utilizing a royalty-free knock-off model of a music once you already personal the unique. It is all the time felt like Apple’s implementation was constructed inside the restraints of not copying Android. Samsung is actually defaulting to a second-rate model of a function that already exists on the telephone.
These modifications really feel like a major departure from what makes Android nice. By mimicking the iPhone’s notification system, Samsung is adopting a few of its worst facets. Fortunately, not like the iPhone, Android has all the time been about customization and management so to revert most of those selections. I simply want they weren’t the brand new default.