Connecting Possibilities: Highlights From the Samsung Developer Conference 2023
Samsung wants to empower developers to harness its electronics ecosystem to build new, connected experiences.
- At the Samsung Developer Conference 2023, Samsung delineated its development strategy with third parties.
- The company wants to empower developers to harness its electronics ecosystem to build new, connected experiences.
- Samsung also announced the new One UI 6 for its Galaxy line of smartphones.
Samsung’s ninth annual Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) marked the company’s resolve to invest efforts into creating or enabling the creation of a product ecosystem propelled by developers. The one-day conference follows the electronics conglomerate’s Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event, which saw the launch of a range of smartphones.
However, at SDC23, the company’s biggest announcement is to back up its lucrative position as the global leader in the smartphone segment. The developer-focused outlook of SDC23 adhered to the latest industry-wide trends of incorporating security and health-related features into its core offerings.
Moreover, Samsung is not shying away from making a place for itself, albeit much later than its competitors, in digital payments and identification with an introductory offering to be rolled out in two states.
“Over 500 million Samsung products are sold every year, and the number of people using Samsung accounts exceeds 600 million. To us, this is both a huge achievement and a profound responsibility,” noted JH Han, vice chairman, CEO, and head of Samsung’s Device eXperience (DX) division.
“I believe that if you — our developers and partners — join this journey of innovation, we can create greater opportunities and a brighter future together.”
Well, sure. As a former Samsung Galaxy series user, the company is far off from the days of the cluttered-up user interface (UI) and slow operations in TouchWiz UI. Despite poor software, Samsung continued to sell devices because of its hardware, which was and still is excellent.
The company’s efforts in creating One UI, whose latest version was shown off to approximately 3,000 developers at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, during SDC23 certainly is commendable, giving it an edge in software.
Highlights From Samsung Developer Conference 2023
One UI 6
Carrying the new Android skin under the ‘Enabling your Galaxy, your way’ tagline, Samsung has introduced multiple new features for improved usability. One UI 6 is based on Android 14 and has been in beta since February 2023.
One UI 6 features an upgraded Quick settings panel for ease in accessibility, redesigned app interfaces, and supplemental changes to built-in apps such as Gallery, which now includes AI-driven image remastering and correctional features. These include the Photo Remaster and Object Eraser.
Speaking of media-related additions, One UI 6 has the Samsung Studio video editor and an improved camera experience with optimization features. The new UI also features a new changeable system font called One UI Sans.
See More: Made by Google 2023: A Recap of Launches From the Event
Samsung Wallet
Sally Hyesoon Jung, VP of Framework R&D Group at Samsung MX, introduced Samsung’s foray into the digital payment and wallet ecosystem, starting with two U.S. states. Jung confirmed residents of Arizona and Iowas would be the first ones to be able to verify themselves digitally.
She confirmed Samsung is working with other states to enable their users the benefits of storing and accessing health and identity information on mobile devices. Meanwhile, the company is also testing the acceptance of digital IDs with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. Over two dozen airports accept digital IDs stored on Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.
Samsung Health
Samsung is renewing its commitment to allow third-party developers to access the data collected through the BioActive sensor on Galaxy smartwatches under Samsung Health. Samsung Privileged Health SDK will continue to be crucial in building relevant healthcare experiences for Samsung users.
The aim is to usher in the evolution of varied use cases, such as the digital health experiences available under SmartThings and Samsung Food.
SmartThings
Samsung’s SmartThings IoT platform has been integrated through the Galaxy smartphone to shed rigidity associated with a limited-range remote control. The solution, which connects TVs, phones, tablets, and other consumer electronics and home appliances, also features an extended Bixby integration for contextual, intentional, and user language understanding.
Tizen OS
Tizen has achieved the kind of success Samsung hoped it would. Still, that isn’t deterring the company from doubling down on the operating system with expanded integrations with home appliances. “Tizen is coming to even more devices, including home appliances with a 7-inch screen, while also boosting experiences with on-device AI and the Home AI Edge Hub,” Samsung noted.
“With Home AI Edge technology, appliances with lower computing power can request AI services to the devices in the house with strong computing resources such as CPUs and NPUs. This will ultimately make all devices in the home intelligent.”
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Image source: Shutterstock
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