I hate ONE UI, what can I do about it?

[DragosForFSake]

Hi Everybody,

I understand there is quite a lot of people raving about the ONE UI operating system Samsung has blessed us with.
I however hate it. Hate is a strong word, but in this case I don't think it's strong enough.

I bought my S9 because that phone felt right. It had an edge of luxury and class from the overal design of it's outer shell to the feel and the design of the UI. Now it just feels like an iphone knock off. The clunky over sized icons, the intrusive backgrounds for notifications, the absolutley hidious rounding of the corners. Yes I get it, it mimics the rounded screen corners but for crying out loud there are better, more subtle ways of doing it. It feels like the phone interface was designed by a layman whom does not understand the devil in the details. 

I understand that "specialists" out there said that flat design is coming back, that is no excuse for flat and lasy design in my opinion. I want my transparent backgrounds back, I want my gradients and dropshadows back. I want this phone to feel like I spent the money I did on it, and not some God forsaken iPhone replica.

I don't need some customer support rep explaining to me how Samsung has spent time and money in making the UI benefit it's users, or what your research says about your implementations. I want my old UI back. How can I do that and can I do that without compromising my phone's security?

Thank you.

[Gbr]

---

@TracyR wrote:

I'd advise submitting your feedback through the Samsung Members app, this way you can be sure that it reaches the developers directly. Samsung are always open to listening to customers and users of their products. 

---

While in general I do believe they at least receive the feedback people send in, and so I agree we should flood them with voices of discontent... I'm not exactly sure what they actually do about it. From the amount of answers I myself have gotten, as well as heard of from friends, that amount to little more than "yes, we know, deal with it, kthxbai" - I have my doubts.

Probably one of the worst aspects of the entire One UI cononundrum is the amount of positive press it gets from the relevant media/sites (to use the term loosely: from "experts"). There is a rather astounding amount of articles out there praising it, and reading each and every one of them I'm just left scratching my head wondering if the writer actually used the device with this monstrosity on it as a daily driver, or indeed for a longer period than a few hours it took to check it out for the article. I genuinely am baffled at the compliments One UI gets in all the "press".

[Smileysam]

I agree this is a massive backwards step with lots of useful features and benefits removed for no apparent reason!

The phone is actually harder to use and many shortcuts are missing.

So we have less features and more steps required to use the ones that are left; it makes no sense at all.

[TH3ROY]

---

@TracyR wrote:

While you're not able to revert back to the previous version of software without compromising the warranty of your phone. I'd advise submitting your feedback through the Samsung Members app, this way you can be sure that it reaches the developers directly. Samsung are always open to listening to customers and users of their products. 

---

What a load of bull you can revert back and nothing happens to warranty why are you misleading your consumers? XDA people go to S9 section all tools and firmware’s needed to downgrade are there i have downgraded 2 NOTE 9 back to Oreo 8,1 Knox works secure folder works s health works witch warranty gets voided if you downgrade can you please elaborate ?
ONE UI is Samsung attempt to be IPOOP Samsung was one of the best companies on the planet but every year they think if they change interface to IPOOP style it will get more sales stupid!

[KH4]

I too dont like the updated UI I want it back to the more sophisticated look and feel. There are a few functionalities I miss. I am so disappointed!

[xaml]

@Dragos
I am on the previous model, which I intentionally purchased recently, but aside from this I more or less agree with you. I would not say that I hate or more than hate it but I do not like it. The icons are too loud, which includes the weather icon, the rounded notifications tend to display less information or use more screen space and it seems that system notifications appearing on the bottom now are displayed in the same or in a similar style as for example communication notifications. I understand that this is more cohesive, but it was more practical for system notifications to appear in a less obtrusive manner. It does not seem to be possible to move the clock on the notification bar to the right side or to deactivate it without installing an additional application. I also liked the somewhat complex design of the navigation bar icons. In addition, I am sure that there was an option to display icons in the application drawer as they are or as fitted into a space with a border. There is no such option anymore and that is both annoying and capricious. There really should be customisation options available for these mentioned points. I mean being able to choose from different options as it is possible to do so in regards to other functions. Leaving this out or indirectly delegating it to theme creators to me is not a satisfying experience. It introduces its own set of challenges, namely having to additionally purchase something for an integral part of the device as its user interface and especially having to fully like the designs, which I, for better or for worse, rarely do. Finally, the notification bar wallpaper shadow issue does not seem to have been resolved. Thank you for this update, Samsung, but I believe that you could improve as elaborated here.

[Marie541]

Anyone knows how can I unistall for S9+... Thanks.

[Marky136]

Phew glad its not just me, from the tech press you'd assume everyone loved it!

I have an S8+ and am due to upgrade, my assumption was that I was getting the S10+... thankfully my S8+ received the One UI before the 10 rolled out.

Currently testing an Huawei and a Pixel, not sure yet which I'll spring for  all I do know is after years of Samsung...sadly its goodbye. 

PS can I prevent updating to One UI on my Tab S4? Or is it forced like on the phones by constant nagging until you do it?

[Granpa]

I couldn't agree more. I find One UI clucky and hideous, especially what they've done to the notification bar is atrocious. I can't dismiss notifications I used to be able to, the rounded corners look awful... it's just terrible. I want to be able to undo One UI but keep Android 9

[Taiji2078]

Samsung decided to ruin my phone (yes! incredible, but my S9+ is primary a phone) by deleting one of its main functions : the native call recording.

First Samsung forced me to buy a 3rd party app so that I can record my phone calls and now disabled that too with the Pie update.

In Italy EU is 100% legal to record ALL the phone calls without any consent bla bla. Samsung couldn't care less. This is why I cannot care less and in the future I will spend my money elsewhere if they do not fix this until August 2019.

And NO, I will not root my phone or roll back to Android 8 just to fix their mistakes. I will just sell my S9+ to some noob and buy a phone that actually allows me to use it for what I paid for.

[xaml]

---

@Taiji2078 wrote:

In Italy EU is 100% legal to record ALL the phone calls without any consent bla bla.

---

This is a very delicate topic and in my view your statement is very unlikely, not least because there seems to have evolved an understanding for the value of privacy as well as for consent in the region which you mention.

And to everyone voicing their discontent about the updated user interface, I agree that there is room for improvement but I would recommend you to try and not take this to extremes.