It won’t be too long before customers are able to get their hands on a Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, or Galaxy S23 Ultra. Samsung is going to unveil its new flagship lineup on February 1, more than a week earlier than it launched the Galaxy S22 series last year.
Naturally, hardware upgrades are to be expected in many areas. The 200MP camera on the Galaxy S23 Ultra will probably be the main highlight, but there will also be other upgrades, such as a new Snapdragon chip (an Exynos variant is reportedly not going to release anywhere) on all phones and bigger batteries on the base Galaxy S23 and the Plus model.
When it comes to software, the Galaxy S23 series will run Android 13 out of the box, but with version 5.1 of its custom One UI interface on top. And it looks like one of Samsung’s first-party apps that are getting updated in One UI 5.1 — Game Launcher — has leaked online and is available for download.
One UI 5.1 Game Launcher app works on existing Galaxy devices
While current Galaxy devices run Game Launcher version 6.0.09.6, One UI 5.1 will bump the version number up to 7.0.00.5. Now, it’s possible this updated version isn’t actually tied to One UI 5.1 and will instead be released for all supported Galaxy devices as a regular app update, but that’s something we can’t say for sure at the moment.
And frankly, it doesn’t look like the new version of Game Launcher brings any new features from what we’ve been able to test so far. All we have noticed is that the main screen after opening the app puts shortcuts to your recently played/installed games at the bottom and offers game recommendations from different genres.
Here are the main screens from both the existing (left) and leaked Game Launcher app (right) side by side:
The current official version of Game Launcher, on the other hand, puts everything from your installed games to your gaming timeline and game notifications on the home screen. Basically, Samsung is now focusing on putting gaming recommendations at the forefront, which is certainly an improvement as Game Launcher is supposed to be about games first and foremost, but that’s about it for what’s new on Game Launcher version 7.0.00.5.
As noted earlier, we can’t confirm if the newer version of Game Launcher will be part of One UI 5.1 or a separate app update, though our money is on the latter as the new version works without issues on existing devices. To take it for a spin on your Galaxy phone or tablet, just download the file to your device using the link below and install it manually by accessing it through the My Files app or any other file manager app.
