Samsung’s Android 15-based One UI 7.0 brings a lot of improvements, including revamped user interface, new features, and smoother animations. While people are happy about most of the changes, some are feeling frustrated with a few elements of the new UI as they aren’t able to find certain things in the places they used to in the old UI, and one of those things is media playback control widget in the notifications panel.
Accessing media playback controls in One UI 6
In Android 14-based One UI 6, when you swipe down on the screen, you see a panel with quick settings and notifications. This is also where you see controls for media playback if you are playing audio or video. If you swipe down once again, you see the expanded view of quick settings. Well, that’s not the case with the new software.
Accessing media playback in controls in One UI 7
In Android 15-based One UI 7, when you swipe down from the left half of the screen, you see a panel that shows only notifications. It neither shows you quick settings nor media playback controls. You will find those two when you swipe down from the right half of the display. This also doubles up as the expanded view of quick settings.
In One UI 6, people could swipe down anywhere on the screen and access music playback controls. In One UI 7, they can’t. In the new software, they have to swipe down from the right half of the screen to control music playback. They aren’t used to that. That’s making them dislike the new layout. While swiping from the right half of the screen isn't a big deal, swiping down from anywhere to access media controls is easier.
You can merge the two panels but it doesn't solve the problem
The new software gives people an option to merge the notifications and the quick settings panels to mimic the older layout. However, going with that option doesn’t solve the issue. That’s because when you merge the two, you still don’t see music controls by swiping down on the screen once as the playback controls are now part of the expanded view of quick settings and to access that, you have to swipe down on the screen twice.
Check out One UI 7's notification and quick settings panels in our video below.
We hope that Samsung provides people with an option to see media playback controls by swiping down from anywhere on the screen with a software update or at least offers it as a customization option as part of Good Lock modules. However, even if Samsung considers offering the ability as an option, it might not offer the feature anytime soon. Speaking of which, you might want to check out the crazy new capabilities of Home Up.