Samsung’s Good Lock add-ons are brewing some cool new features ahead of One UI 3.1.1

In June, Samsung’s Good Lock add-on NiceCatch confirmed the existence of One UI 3.1.1 by mentioning it in its changelog. Now the manufacturer is set to launch the Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3 next month, and we expect to see the debut of One UI 3.1.1 alongside them. While we may get fewer new features in favor of optimizations and bug fixes, the big version is still a bit more advanced – One UI 4 based on Android 12, later this year. While we look forward to all of this, several other Good Lock add-ons have been updated in anticipation, promising some exciting new features in the next version of One UI.

NavStar is an old favorite with Good Lock users, allowing us to tweak and customize our navigation bar or gesture navigation. The latest update adds a Samsung DeX-inspired task switcher, and while it’s not yet available, Samsung has been kind enough to include a screenshot in the Galaxy Store listing:

The feature is called Task Stack, and when enabled, it will move the navigation buttons to the right of the screen and place a drop-down list of currently open apps to the left for easier switching. It’s reminiscent of the kind of desktop UI you would find on Windows or Samsung DeX. It’s not the prettiest interface in the world, and I hope it will be improved in future updates.

The navigation bar has the same amount of padding between it and the icons as it does with the edge of the screen. I think this is a mistake, because it leaves a lot of blank space in the middle. We don’t know much else about Task Stack like whether it will work with gesture navigation or not. The changelog says it should be available on the Z Fold3 and tablets running One UI 3.1.1 and newer, and I suspect that will happen to the original Fold and Z Fold2 as well.

The most exciting update is about the theme park, which has a lot of icon themes, some of which are available now. You can see the full changelog below:

There are some cool things here, namely support for icon packs and changing the shape of the icons. The changelog says it will be available on the Fold3 / Flip3 or later, but I think that’s just bad wording, and it will likely come on any device that gets One UI 3.1.1. In fact, some of these features are already there.

Left / middle: Theme park icon edition, Right: Icon pack selection

When you create a theme based on a wallpaper, there is now a new icon section. From there, you can tint all of your icons to match your wallpaper or import an icon pack from the Galaxy Store. I’ll be honest – I was incredibly excited when I read this changelog, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Tinted icons are ugly, and I was hoping I could use regular icon packs from the Play Store, not correct those found on the Galaxy Store. Don’t get me wrong – there are some nice icons available – but they only tend to themed with Samsung’s system apps, leaving everything else as is.

The tinted icons raise an important question: Will Samsung embrace Material You? In June, SamMobile found that Samsung has the code name One UI 4 “palette”. It might all be a coincidence, but to me it suggests that Samsung is considering a major color-centric One UI overhaul, just like Android 12. The tinted icon in Theme Park could be one of them, allowing users to tweak and tweak it. customize icons in conjunction with Material You.

The only thing missing at the moment is the ability to change the shape of the icons. I imagine this will work the same as the Pixel Themes app in Android 11, letting you choose the adaptive icon style your phone uses. Many people prefer Google’s circles to Samsung’s squirrels, so this would be a welcome addition.

A 3.1.1 UI might not be that exciting, but with new Good Lock features on the horizon, things may just surprise us. You can download the updated add-ons from the Galaxy Store or APK Mirror here: NavStar, Theme Park.