This One UI 7 update has made my Galaxy S25 Ultra much more enjoyable.

      I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for 10 days now, and the most striking aspect, both positive and negative, is its familiarity. The recognized design is beneficial as Samsung has implemented necessary improvements such as enhanced battery life, better camera skin color temperature, and more, all while keeping the hardware largely unchanged. However, Samsung played it a bit too cautiously with the Galaxy S25 Ultra by not venturing into new experimental territory. It began to feel like just another unexciting incremental update—until I installed the latest Home Up update from One UI 7, which introduced fresh, customizable options for interacting with the phone and personalizing it to fit my preferences.

      What is this new Home Up update about

      Prakhar Khanna / Digital Trends

      One of the first steps I suggest for your new Samsung flagship is to install the Good Lock app. It offers a multitude of customizations through downloadable modules for your Galaxy smartphone. This is crucial because, unlike the older TouchWiz platform, One UI is lighter, faster, and more responsive, yet it lacks the same level of built-in customization flexibility. This is ideal for most users who prefer an efficient and stable experience. Not everyone wants to dive deep into changing the overall aesthetic with customizable animations, icons, and such.

      Nevertheless, Samsung hasn’t neglected power users; it has simply transitioned the customization options to a new app called Good Lock. This app includes various modules like Camera Assistant, which enhances shutter speed, One Hand Operation+ for easier one-handed use, and more. One notable module, Home Up, has received significant enhancements in One UI 7. The updated Home Up app introduces detailed controls to make your Galaxy S25 experience more enjoyable.

      If you were someone who used to root devices in the past to maximize hardware capabilities, the new Home Up update will appeal to you. This Good Lock module has been supercharged with the recent update, enabling you to adjust animations to make your phone feel faster or slower according to your preference.

      Prakhar Khanna / Digital Trends

      The updated Home gesture animations and customizable app grid settings offer greater personalization for your Galaxy smartphones. The former enables you to adjust the menu through four presets, along with a slider and Advanced tuning for further modifications. To access the new animation adjustment settings, navigate to Settings > Home screen settings > More customizations > Gesture settings > Home gesture animation tuning.

      The Classic option is the default setting for One UI; Elegance adds a bounce effect to the icons while slightly slowing the animation; Dynamic accelerates it, resembling a 0.5x speed setting; and Sweet decelerates the animations. There’s a slider beneath these presets that allows you to fine-tune the animation speed.

      If you remain unsatisfied with the results, you can enter Advanced Tuning for more precise adjustments. This feature allows for modifications to icon scale, position, and more. Adjusting the icon scale includes settings for damping, stiffness, friction, and interpolator. You can also alter the wallpaper using the Wallpaper Interpolator found under Advanced Tuning, allowing you to adjust wallpaper scale, duration, interpolator, and blur via sliders.

      To access the new Home Up module, go to Settings > Home screen settings > More customizations. Then, tap on Home screen > DIY Home screen, which opens numerous opportunities to customize your home screen. You can add stickers, change their size and orientation, and freely move items to maximize the use of modern large displays.

      By default, you have two options accessible by swiping down on the home screen to choose between the quick panel or notification panel. However, you can select Finder access from Home Up > Home screen to enable a Finder similar to iPhone for searches. You can also further adjust the icon grid count, folder size, manage background blur, and more.

      What else can you do with Home Up

      Prakhar Khanna / Digital Trends

      Home Up provides six setting modules: Home screen (as previously explained), Backup and restore, Task changer, Gesture settings, Edge panel, and Share Manager. You can enable Backup and restore to automatically save Home Up settings at intervals of one day or one week.

      In the Task changer, you can modify the layout of recent apps. Options include Tilt stack, Grid, Vertical list, and Slim list for different ways to display active apps when you swipe up and hold. I’ve added labels and toggled Mini mode to display the recent app list in the lower half of the screen for easier access without changing my grip on the phone.

      Beyond adjusting the aforementioned animation speeds, the Gesture animation tuning module offers additional functionalities such as enabling bottom gestures in full-screen mode, modifying Home gesture vibration, and more.

      Prakhar Khanna / Digital Trends

      The Edge panel setting in Home Up allows you to add two columns to the edge panel and scroll through the recent apps section to view more applications within this panel.