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Samsung’s revamped UI leaks, reminds us of Windows Phone and Google Now

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The man, the myth, the legend, evleaks, has done it again, giving us another look into Samsung’s upcoming user interface overhaul. In a previous Sasmung UI leak, we saw a new UI that was best described as a Windows Phone Live Tiles clone. This time evleaks has offered up what would appear to be a colorful, informative cards UI, that reminds of us Windows Phone’s Live Tiles as before, but this time includes contextual and useful information similar to Android’s Google Now. The collection of cards includes your current location, home automation, fitness tracking, food orders, biking/cycling information, sports scores, flight information, delivery updates, event reminders, and more.

New_Samsung_UI

Most of these services are currently offered through Google Now, but Samsung seems to be taking the card UI a bit further by adding a social element beyond commute updates and birthday announcements. The cards above show check-in information, location sharing, song sharing, and messages from your friends intertwined with other information that you would be tracking.

It’s no huge secret that many users from the Android world view Samsung’s current TouchWiz UI as dated and in need of a drastic overhaul. It’s not known if these images depict an application that can be launched in a similar method to S-Voice or Google Now or if these images are part of a bigger plan to revamp TouchWiz into a cleaner and more modern experience.

With Mobile World Congress 2014 being a little over a month away and the Samsung Galaxy S5 set to launch in the Spring, we look forward to these leaks materializing into something a bit more tangible in the near future.

Source: evleaks

Derek Ross
I'm a passionate Android enthusiast that's on the pulse of the latest Android news, writing about Android as often as possible. I'm also a little addicted to social networking. Hit me up, I'd love to chat.

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67 Comments

  1. The more I see of Samsung’s new direction (this supposed UI, the locking out of 3rd party vendors, etc), the more I realize I won’t be buying anymore Samsung stuff.

    1. I’ll buy Samsung devices if there’s an option to revert to something closer to stock Android.

      1. Google Play Edition if they choose to go that route.

    2. You do realise that this hasn’t been rolled out yet.. Imagine if a screenshot of the PS5 was leaked containing info about 1st party software – you’d think to bash them as you’d assume they won’t support 3rd party developers.. Chill!

    3. I hate TouchWiz… like, more than anything. That said, I’m giving Sammy the benefit of the doubt here. They need to update TouchWiz. I like the direction that they are headed.

      1. why do you hate touhwiz? It made my work life more productive. My Note 2 is still awesome and I appreciate the software samsung made to go with it’s hardware. what about touchwiz is so bad? Dont say speed cause my note 2 does not lag. If you say, it takes up extra space that i’ll somewhat understand. But for many, the software is a great addition to an otherwise boring stock android that lacks a lot of practical features of touchwiz.

  2. So Samsung is releasing an inferior version of SW that already exists in the native OS (google Now) No surprise. They stuff their phones full of inferior copies of perfectly good native apps like Svoice (that sucks). One or two more generation and they will completely replace android. I bet their UI overlay is already bigger than the base android operating system. Forget ever getting android OS updates on this mess. Glad I’ve stayed away from Samsung.

    1. You know this software is inferior because? Have you used it? Have you seen more than the pictures shown here? Judging by the pictures shown, I’m forced to say this looks a whole lot better than Google Now, and I love Google Now. And, Samsung has a pretty damn good track record of updating their devices, so you also lose a point there…

      1. Because all of Samsung’s existing duplicate SW is much worse than the native google version. Samsung relies on shotgunning as many poorly done features as possible, with none of them working well. They look good on the spec sheets but work horribly in reality.

        You really think Samsung has a good track record of updates? . Do any Samsung phones have KitKat yet? No. They will be among the last to roll it out cause they have so much junk loaded on top of it to try to make work.

        1. You realize samsung just uploaded the kernel for the kitkat on the note 3 last week, right? Where’s HTC ang LG at with their updates? How are they supporting their phones past 1 year of life, yeah they’re not. Sorry but aside from Nexus/Moto, Samsung is the obvious choice.with features that work better than their competition. Look at the note 3, no other large phone can touch it because dare I say, touchwiz features are actually useful.

        2. Actually, Samsung’s sharing and camera SW both work way better than anything that Google has released. And, they were the first ones to implement the pull-down widgets and incorporate the Swype-style keyboard. And let’s face it, they’re on the right track with the settings menus, which are way faster to navigate than stock Android. Not everything Samsung does is a fail.

    2. This is just Samsung continuing to move away from Google and Google apps. S-Voice is the Google Voice Search competitor. This app/widget would be a Google Now competitor. I bet the message from Ashley doesn’t use Hangouts, it probably uses ChatON and the song share from Catherine probably uses Samsung Music Hub instead of Google Play Music.

      1. Correct. And all the Samsung apps you mentioned are much worse than the native google ones. And it appears they are getting worse by adding even more bloat. Early version of Android may have needed a UI “skin” overlay, but KitKap certainly does not. TW is unneeded.

      2. Chaton is great and if you prefer other messaging services, use it. it’s called android and you got options. I mean good night…. qq more bro.

  3. Heh. They’ve managed to make it uglier than the current TW. Nice one Samsung.

  4. these images are soo awesome , i hope they reserve these for TIZEN OS, its a good change for touchwiz, and all the haters should shut their frickin mouth up, stop hating on samsung software all the time

    1. Lolwut.

      1. you are a moderator, and you say that? no wonder phandroid hasnt take off

        1. Well, I’m a bit more than a moderator. Thanks for noticing. As for Tizen, it’s dead. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo just axed Tizen and they were planning on being major supporters.

          1. You are starting to sound very immature for someone working for phandroid. I think you need to reconsider the kinds of comments you make. Actually I just took a closer look at your pic and you are a kid… Please continue.

          2. official tizen OS didn’t even release yet and they are puking out of their nose from disgust

          3. disgusting moderator, no wonder phandroid sucks
            Everyone here should jump to pocketnow or phonearena, or engadget, Derek ROSS ,anyway you dont deserve to be a moderator with your biase comments, truly dissappointing man phandroid, remove this POS

          4. What you are calling bias is a little thing called FACT!

      2. DOA = Dead on Arrival

        I would agree with you, but Tizen will never arrive

    2. That’s what I was thinking too. Maybe they’re trying to get their customers used to their stuff so they could easily make the switch if they ditch android

  5. I appreciate effort to make things more pleasing, but Samsung … come on… the eyes can only handle so much. More scrolling is needed now, the visuals (though not bad) distract from the information we need to read from the card itself. Poor usability execution again. Keep it simple!

    1. Agreed. Simple and cleaner Android UI’s, closer to stock Android is where it’s at IMO.

      1. THIS. I admire Sony’s UI the most. TouchWiz is all about the gee whiz good golly approach and it’s just TOO MUCH.

        1. you want simple? IOS is simple, go ahead and use it lol

          1. And I do. iPad mini and iPhone 5s.

          2. than why the hate against samsung when you don’t even use it or planning to use it

          3. I’ve owned a handful of Samsungs. They just present a lot of redundant software, wonky design choices, and what not.

          4. “present a lot of redundant software”…and apple doesn’t? design choices can vary from people to people..just admit it, you be a hater ;)

          5. I’m a hater for not liking touchwiz all that much? Okay…?? You could have asked about the redundancies instead redirecting this to Apple. And the redundancies I speak of are Samsung versions of what already Android already has.

          6. becuase you replied back with saying you using the mini and 5s..also redundancies..yes, to a certain extent..but if you use some of their devices now, there are little things that differentiates tw from stock, for instance. And i am not talking about samsung’s ‘gimmick’ features.

      2. Well one positive is that at least it doesn’t look like ginger bread.

  6. BlackBerry 10 > rest

    1. The market disagrees

      1. That’s because they don’t know any better.

    2. BlackBerry 10 > Buggy as hell – in every review on the internet.

      1. Buggy is Android

    3. Blackberry people are worse than Ron Paul supporters.

  7. To me, it looks like everything Microsoft wanted Windows Phone to be. I guess you could say the did WP better than Microsoft did, haha. It’s not what I want my phone to be like though. That’s why I buy Nexus. I like stock Android.

  8. Not.. Sure how I feel about this.

  9. New ui needs to be like webos

  10. How is this a surprise after seeing the software on the new tablets from CES?

  11. Looks like we’re gonna have to choose between Samsung and Google. See ya Samsung, I’m loyal to the OS, not the OEM

    1. It takes two to tango and I love touch wiz and I love google. Win win for me :)

  12. Looks identical to the large Live Tiles on WP.

    1. So Microsoft owns rectangles, what are magazines going to do???

  13. mdhdhdn

  14. Its sad everytime we want Samsung to innovate they seem to rip something off.

    1. We only want the innovation on the hardware side. Samsung has proven they are terrible at software. I wish they would sell Nexus phones globally.

  15. To everyone that is critiquing the new UI, you have options, it’s just widgets. You don’t have to leave it on your screen. Geesh!!!

    Plus WP does not look like that.

    1. I actually saw that screenshot on my phone and it seems like a decent design. Now do I want that constanly on my homescreen? NO. but im sure it is an option. Android is all about that. I rock Note 2 and Nova Prime, best combo ever.

    2. But you are still stuck with their bloated tiles launcher. No icons on your home screens. Just crappy tiles!

  16. I find it weird the battery icon is green but it’s white in their 4.4 update. Early build?

    I also find it funny that people get mad and don’t really know what they’re looking at just yet. This is most likely widgets or a feed. If it’s even similar you claim it’s copying. Nothing like Windows 8.

  17. Welp if this is true then the Note 2 will be my last Samsung device….. Also how do you know they are just widget ‘s? It’s just a screenshot.

  18. It looks way better and more functional then anything in stock Android.

  19. Can someone post a screenshot of this UI in Windows Phone, I can’t find it…..

    1. yeah maybe cause it doesn’t look like it.

  20. I’m glad Samsung is making a big change to TouchWizz and, for now, I can’t say much if I like or not the new look, one thing I know for sure tho,it is that since the GS3 Samsung has made amazing hardware AND software so I do have big expectations and, apparently, much more patience than many of the commentators below… and hey, this is Android so I’m pretty sure whatever Samsung releases it will still be highly customizable.

  21. I hate it. That is all

  22. If only someone would make a Nexus phone with the high end hardware specs Samsung provides. Then add a removable battery and SD memory slot and that would be a market winner!

  23. I suspected something was amiss when I found when I pressed the home key once on my Galaxy Note 3 that some crappy Flipboard like application kept popping up. There is no way to turn this off and it is quite annoying. Then I saw the new Galaxy 12 Tablet and there was no Android UI to be found, just a crappy tiles Windows 8 like interface. I would never buy that. It goes to reason Samsung in all their misguided wisdom will put this crap launcher on their upcoming phones. What a joke.

    Why not roll out the devices and give an option to choose the Samsung launcher or a Nexus launcher.

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