Galaxy devices could soon get Google Discover feed option on homescreen

Samsung did a lot of experimenting with the news feed on its smartphones over the years. It all started with Flipboard news feed a few years ago and since then Samsung didn't catch a break. Flipboard was replaced with Bixby Home. The company then replaced it with Samsung Daily and then brought along Samsung Free. Now, the company could soon bring Google Discover feed to the homescreen, something users have been asking for years.

Android 11-based One UI 3.1 is expected to debut with the Galaxy S21 series, and it brings minor UI tweaks and a few new features, including the option to set Google Discover on the leftmost homescreen. A leaked video of the Galaxy S21's UI showed the Google Discover feed on One UI 3.1's stock home screen. The change was caught by an eagle-eyed Twitter user, and the presence of the upcoming feature was then corroborated by Max Weinbach's sources.

Android Police's report claims that Samsung will let users choose either Google Discover or Samsung Free/Samsung Daily as their preferred news feed. If you are someone like me who doesn't like to have a news feed on the homescreen, then you can still continue to disable it entirely. One UI 3.1 is also set to bring other new features, including Bixby Voice Unlock and Directors View in the camera app.

Frankly, Samsung's news feed experience has been deteriorating since last year. Samsung Free feels like a downgrade compared to Bixby Home and Samsung Daily, and it fills the screen with unwanted PWA games and random articles. The decision to bring Google Discover to One UI 3.1 is bound to make a lot of Galaxy users happy. Samsung might start rolling out One UI 3.1 to other Galaxy devices a few months after the launch of the Galaxy S21.

https://twitter.com/vamsiexplores/status/1337460606157299712?s=20

Asif Iqbal Shaik - Senior Editor

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First Samsung device: T100

Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S21 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.

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