Verizon’s Galaxy S20 models are the first to get Android 11 and One UI 3.0

Verizon revealed this morning that Samsung’s Galaxy S20 line will be the first Samsung phones to receive Android 11 and One UI 3.0 from Samsung in the United States, and now the software has already started to spread to customers, according to Droid Life. One UI 3.0 has been in public beta for two months, but that marks the official release of the final software.

One UI 3.0 has the messaging, notifications, and security features of Android 11, as well as some One UI-specific add-ons. Samsung has added easier ways to access widgets, take screenshots, and double-tap the screen to put your phone to sleep, to name a few, but if you want a more exhaustive list of all the changes to One UI 3.0, you can check this roundup at Android Police.

Image: Samsung

Outside of the United States, the international launch of One UI 3.0 also appears to be gaining momentum. Android Police says Samsung sent out a full schedule of release dates to users in Egypt, with the flagship S20 line getting Android 11 and One UI 3.0 sometime in December, but after the US. According to the schedule, the next phones to receive the update will be the Note 20, Z Fold, Note 10 and S10 phones in January 2021. The update will take some time to reach every Samsung phone that supports it as you go. use a Galaxy A10, A20 or A30S, don’t expect to see it until August.

When we reviewed Android 11 in September, we appreciated all of its added features to handle the complexity of modern Android phones, but noted the possibility of fragmentation, as Google’s and Samsung’s hold on Android started to diverge again. Samsung was known to take a long time to release updates, such as when it took an entire five months to ship Android Pie. But that changed over the years as her schedule management improved. Last year’s Android 10 update took three months to arrive on the first phones, and that’s what we’re seeing with Android 11 this year as well.

Problems like fragmentation are important because Samsung is the world’s largest smartphone supplier and the largest producer of Android phones in the United States. This means that the widespread adoption of new features largely depends on the company’s choice to include them in new versions of One UI. From our first look, it looks like the most important elements of Android 11 have been turned into One UI 3.0; but when it comes to Google’s other Android projects, Samsung may not have as much to gain.