[Review] Google Android 8.0 Oreo in Samsung Galaxy Smartphones

Today in this article, we are going to review Google Android operating system’s latest version 8.0 “Oreo”. We’ll be using Samsung Galaxy smartphone in this review, so you might not see a few features mentioned in this article in other Google Android based mobile phones. Samsung has released Android 8.0 Oreo firmware labelled as “Samsung Experience version 9.0” for many Galaxy series smartphones such as S9, S9+, S8, S8+, S7, S7 Edge, Note 8, etc. All these mobile phones use similar features which are based on Android 8.0 version.

Let’s start the review:

PS: There are not much changes in the UI, you should also check out our previous Android 7.0 Nougat review to learn more about the UI changes:

[Review] Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with Google Android 7.0 Nougat

New Icons and App Drawer

Samsung has added new icons to some default apps such as Phone, Contact, Messages, Clock, Camera, Gallery, My Files, etc. The new icons look better compared to previous icons.

The App Drawer/App Launcher has been redesigned. Now you can access the app drawer by swiping up on the home screen. A dedicated button to launch app drawer is also present on home screen as usual.

You can change lots of settings related to app drawer. Just tap on 3-dots icon present at the top-right corner of app drawer screen and you’ll get several options such as:

• Sort
• Clean up pages
• Home screen settings
• Finder settings

Select “Home screen settings” option and you can customize a lot of settings. “Home screen layout” option allows you to have separate home screen and apps screen which is the default setting or have a single home screen only as found in many other brand mobile phones. If you select “Home screen only” option, all your apps will be shown directly on home screen.

You can also change the grid size to 4×4, 4×5 or 5×5.

If you want, you can hide the “Apps” button on Home screen by setting the option “Apps button” to “Hide Apps button“. Now you can access app drawer by swiping up on home screen.

Now you can also select whether your mobile phone should show app icon badges or not. App icon badges are small icons which show notification counts on apps such as missed calls, unread messages, etc. You can select whether app icon badges should show numbers or not.

The “Quick-open notification panel” option is very useful. If you enable it, you can access notification bar/status bar which is shown on the top by just swiping down on home screen.

The new Android version also allows you to hide apps in app drawer. You can select “Hide apps” option and then it’ll allow you to select apps which will be hidden in app drawer screen.

Customize Clock Style on Lock Screen

Now you can also customize the clock appearance on lock screen. Just go to “Settings -> Lock screen and security -> Clock and FaceWidgets -> Clock style” and there you can select from a variety of clock styles to show on your mobile phone lock screen.

You can select analog or digital clock styles from the given range.

New Keyboard Toolbar

Samsung’s keyboard was already one of the best keyboards available in all mobile phone brands and now Samsung has added a new toolbar at the top of the keyboard to make it more useful. Now users can directly select smileys, stickers, GIF images, clipboard, etc right from the toolbar.

If you by any chance don’t like the new toolbar, Samsung has provided a built-in option to remove it. Check out following tutorial to learn how to remove keyboard toolbar:

[Tip] Remove New Keyboard Toolbar in Samsung Galaxy Smartphones

Run Multiple Instances of Social Networking and Messenger Apps

This is the best feature addition by Samsung. Now you can run two separate accounts of various social networking and messenger apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, etc on your single mobile phone.

So if you are using dual SIM in your mobile phone, you can run 2 separate WhatsApp and Facebook accounts on your same mobile phone which will be very useful for many users.

To learn how to run multiple instances of these social networking and messenger apps on your Samsung smartphones, check out following tutorial:

[Tip] Run Two WhatsApp Accounts on Your Samsung Galaxy Mobile Phone

Improvements to Camera

Samsung has added live stickers and stamps in Camera app so now you can select them while taking photos using front or rear camera Selfie lovers will like them for sure.

Restart in Safe Mode option is Back

Long time back we shared a trick to restart your Android based mobile phone in Safe Mode to troubleshoot issues.

Hidden Secret Trick to Reboot Google Android Mobile Phones into Safe Mode

In previous Samsung Galaxy smartphones, the trick was not working as it was disabled by Samsung but in new Android 8.0 firmware, Samsung has enabled the feature.

Now you can reboot your mobile phone in Safe Mode by pressing and holding on Power Off button for a few seconds.

Last But Not Least the Hidden Secret Easter Egg

As we know all Android version come with a hidden secret Easter egg which can be revealed by following some simple steps given in following tutorial:

Hidden Secret Easter Eggs and Daydreams in Google Android Devices

Now the new Android 8.0 Oreo comes with a new Octopus Easter egg which features an Octopus with egg shaped head and eight legs floating around your mobile phone screen. You can drag the Octopus all around to have some fun with the Easter egg.

It’s not as interactive as previous Easter eggs but you’ll definitely enjoy moving the little critter around the screen.