Best buy guide: Galaxy Watch 6 or Galaxy S24+. Woo-hoo join SamMobile on WhatsApp or Telegram!

SamMobile has affiliate and sponsored partnerships. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn a commission.

Notifications
    News for you

    Galaxy A7 (2017) Android Pie beta test ongoing, but don’t get too excited

    Phone
    By 

    Last updated: July 11th, 2019 at 20:28 UTC+02:00

    Samsung has an Android Pie beta program running for the Galaxy A7 (2017), but don't get too excited unless you bought the device in South Korea. The Galaxy A7 (2017) launched worldwide with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow except for Samsung home's country, where it ran Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. And since Samsung provides two major OS upgrades to all of its devices, the A7 (2017) was always destined to end its life on Android Pie in South Korea.

    The Galaxy A7 (2017) was among the first non-flagship Galaxy phones to support Bixby, although it only had Bixby Home and Bixby Reminder support as it didn't have a dedicated physical button for Bixby Voice. And it's unclear if Bixby Voice will come to the device with Android Pie, which allows one to use the power button to fire up Bixby Voice. The various discussion threads on Samsung's community forums doesn't mention anything about the feature, and the A7 (2017) probably won't get it considering the phone is two years old at this point.

    Some features included in the beta are floating mode for the Samsung Keyboard, support for RCS messaging, new Always On Display clock styles, and an updated Gallery app with recycle bin functionality. There's apparently a software-based Live Focus mode for the rear camera as well; the A7 (2017) had earlier received software-based Live Focus for the front camera with a previous update. It remains to be seen when the stable Android Pie update for the device will be released, although one thing's for certain: Whenever it does come out, the update will be limited to the South Korean market.

    Thanks for the tip, Aliyetim!

    Phone Android 9Android PieGalaxy A7 (2017)

    You might also like

    Joker malware found in Android app with over 500k Play Store installs

    Joker malware found in Android app with over 500k Play Store installs

    The Joker malware was found in another popular Android app last week by security research firm Pradeo. Called “Color Message,” the app was removed by Google from the Play Store, but not before exceeding 500,000 installs. According to the research firm, Color Message appears to be connecting to Russian servers. The app accesses the user's […]

    • By Mihai Matei
    • 2 years ago
    8 new Android apps found to contain malware that steals data and money

    8 new Android apps found to contain malware that steals data and money

    A total of eight Android apps from the Google Play Store were recently found to contain the Joker malware. The apps, spotted by Quick Heal Security Labs, could collect and steal data from Android smartphone users and create all sorts of other problems. Fortunately, the research firm brought the issue to Google's attention, and the […]

    • By Mihai Matei
    • 3 years ago
    More Galaxy devices start receiving December security patch

    More Galaxy devices start receiving December security patch

    Less than a week into December, Samsung is frantically releasing the December 2019 security patch to more and more devices. It has now added the Galaxy A7 (2017), A7 (2018), J7 Max/On Max, Galaxy J6+, and the Tab Active2 to this growing list. It’s encouraging to see the Korean company release the latest security update […]

    • By Naresh
    • 4 years ago
    How to stop Galaxy Note 10 S Pen from interfering with navigation gestures

    How to stop Galaxy Note 10 S Pen from interfering with navigation gestures

    Gestures are slowly but surely becoming a mainstream method of navigation on smartphones. Navigation gestures were introduced to Samsung Galaxy smartphones with Android Pie, and you can select whether you want to use gestures or use traditional navigation buttons. On Android 10, you can even select between two different gesture systems: Samsung's own implementation and […]

    • By Abhijeet Mishra
    • 4 years ago
    You’ll need Android 10 on your Galaxy device for Gmail’s dark mode

    You’ll need Android 10 on your Galaxy device for Gmail’s dark mode

    It came as a pleasant surprise when dark mode for the Google Play Store started working for owners of Galaxy devices on Android Pie even though dark mode for Google apps is supposed to work only on Android 10. Later, Instagram also updated its app with a dark mode for Android 10 that works on […]

    • By Abhijeet Mishra
    • 5 years ago
    One UI 1.x vs One UI 2.0: All the user interface changes and improvements

    One UI 1.x vs One UI 2.0: All the user interface changes and improvements

    2018 saw the debut of One UI, a substantial reimagining of the software on Galaxy smartphones and tablets. With One UI, Samsung wanted to make it easy for users to focus on things that matter by placing important information front and center and also make interactive elements of the user interface easier to reach with […]

    • By Abhijeet Mishra
    • 5 years ago