Last updated: March 26th, 2021 at 16:01 UTC+02:00

Galaxy S21-exclusive camera feature could still come to older flagships

One of the best Galaxy S21 camera features could soon be coming to older flagship phones via firmware updates. We’re referring to Director’s View, which has remained exclusive to the Galaxy S21 series ever since it was introduced earlier this year.

The first family of Galaxy devices that could soon take advantage of the Director’s View update might be the Galaxy S20. Not only is it a direct predecessor to the Galaxy S21, which makes it a prime contender for the update, but T-Mobile USA has also seemingly spilled the beans on Samsung’s plans.

T-Mobile USA has recently updated its Galaxy S20 support pages to include instructions on how to use Director’s View. Of course, the feature is not available yet, so this strongly suggests that T-Mobile has prematurely added these instructions before the update could be released.

There’s also the remote possibility that T-Mobile has made a bigger error and those instructions should’ve never been added to the Galaxy S20 support pages, but it’s doubtful. Samsung has a history of bringing new flagship features to older devices via firmware updates, so perhaps Director’s View will be treated the same way.

As to when the update might become available — if it will — it’s anyone’s guess. One UI 3.1 was released for the Galaxy S20 series last month and the firmware didn’t include Director’s View or other features like Zoom Lock and the Google Discover home screen.

What is Director’s View?

Director’s View is a new camera feature that debuted with the Galaxy S21 series. It’s fairly straightforward and it doesn’t need a detailed explanation, even though it’s a fairly big addition.

In short, Director’s View allows users to view real-time feeds of all the phone’s cameras in the viewfinder. Users can switch between camera lenses by tapping the thumbnails on the left, and they can switch to a close-up view by tapping the thumbnails on the right.

In other words — and as the name implies — Director’s View gives users a lot more control over the cameras they’re using while recording a video, and it can be a very useful feature for content creators. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we find out more about its possible release on older Galaxy flagships.