Mobile

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series’ premium smartphone has turned out to be one of the best-selling phones for the company. One of the smartest features that sets apart the Samsung Galaxy S22 from other models is the introduction of Smart Widgets that the users can swipe through. Now, the South Korean smartphone maker appears to be bringing the swipeable Smart Widgets to all tablets, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. These Smart Widgets were limited to the latest One UI 4.1 phones for a long time, before Samsung decided to feature it on its Galaxy tablets, including the Tab S8.

As per a report by 9to5Google, the feature currently is rolling out to Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 users. A few of these tablets running the March security patch released on April 15 have the Smart Widget available in the Widgets list. These widgets are available in three sizes — 2×2, 4×1, and 4×2. While the smallest size of 2×2 widget is not resizable, users will be able to resize the other two widgets to fit the full width of the screen.

To get easy access to the customisation options for the current widget, one has to long-press on a grouping. Apart from adjusting size, the user can also remove any widget, or add a new one. This allows users to decide the apps that they want to place on their phone or tablets. Much like Apple’s stackable widgets, the Smart Widgets for Android allow users to select and combine multiple widgets into one, available with just one easy swipe.

The long press also provides user the option to remove the entire smart widget, or look into the Settings, where one can switch to full screen interface and turn ‘Auto rotate widgets’ on and off.

If you have used Smart Widget on the Samsung Galaxy S21 and Samsung Galaxy S22, it will be easy to access the feature on the tablets as the functioning is similar. To cycle through widgets, one can swipe left or right. The feature that allows to swipe widgets was reportedly added with the mid-April update and is currently limited to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8. We’ve reached out to the company to comment on the rollout, and will update this space when we hear back.


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