Ryan Haines / Android Authority
So yeah, I thought I'd start this article by addressing the obvious first: yes, third-party launchers can solve a lot of problems in Samsung's approach to home screens and app launchers in One user interface 6.1but why would I need them to get the most basic function of all?
Why would I install a third-party app and risk minor glitches or a less-than-optimal experience in my app switcher just to get a feature that should have been available by default?
Why do I need third-party software to fix Samsung's persistent removal of a feature that's been in Android since Marshmallow?
Why, of all the customization options available in One UI that allow me to fine-tune the design and experience down to the smallest detail, is there no option to make the app lists scroll vertically and continuously, rather than inefficiently, page by page and horizontally?
Vertical or horizontal app drawer?
10 votes
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Why is Samsung skipping the vertical app drawer, which has been a staple of stock Android since the good old days? Marshmallow Days in 2015? If something is so intrinsic to the Android experience, it should be available – if only as an option – in every Android skin. This isn't iOS, where I have to scroll through dozens of app screens for days, and heck, even iOS has implemented a smarter app list than the horizontal drawer!
And why did Samsung think it was enough to add the vertical app drawer as an option in the Home Up Good Lock module? … Only to treat it as an absolute afterthought and forget to update it when One UI moved to version 6.0 and then to 6.1. Leave the vertical app list out of the Home Up implementation for now Galaxy S24 series and every other Galaxy phone receiving One UI 6.0 and above in recent months is a clear sign of how much this feature is important to Samsung. (Read: not at all.)
And why should we wait for One UI 6.1.1 this summer, as a Samsung Community moderator suggested (via @theonecid), to regain this neglected function?
Look, I know I'm complaining about a small part of the big picture. But if Samsung all Galaxy AI novelties in the world, why can't it bring this simple switch to One UI? Is it because it's a less shiny feature?
A vertical app drawer should just be a core option in One UI 7.0 (if not the default), instead of being relegated to an obscure module that only us nerds know about. It also shouldn't depend on Good Lock's messy track record of One UI compatibility. If gesture navigation as a setting can achieve One UI, so should the vertical app list.
People learned to scroll vertically through TikTok; I think they can come up with a vertical app list.
Sure, a vertical app list sounds less sexy than black and white photo colorization or generative image editing, but how often do you scroll through your apps every day versus how often do you use genAI to edit a photo? To me it's not even a competition between the two. And every time I try to open an app on my Galaxy S24 Ultra, I curse a little under my breath because Samsung took a frictionless interaction, added friction to it, and decided it was good enough for the millions of people who use its phones every day.
It's 2024, Samsung. People learned to scroll vertically through TikTok and Instagram; I think they can also learn to scroll vertically through their app lists.