Judging by what we’ve seen from leaks and official channels alike, One UI 7.0 will be full of pleasant surprises.But not all news is good news for Galaxy fans, especially since Samsung announced the end of Edge Panel downloads.
One UI 7 will not support the Edge Panels Galaxy Store
The company issued a termination notice earlier this week (via @theonecid), informing Galaxy device users that they will no longer be able to acquire and download Edge Panels from the Galaxy Store on devices running One UI 7 or later.
Edge Panels have always been a unique way to further customize your Samsung device. The Galaxy Store had a variety of panels, some of which were premium and cost money. This is a panel on the side of the screen that can be swiped open to provide quick access to frequently used apps. The Galaxy Store provided neat skins and customizations for the Edge Panel.
Samsung says that, even though you won’t be able to acquire and download new Panels, the ones already on your phone before updating to One UI 7 will be available in the “My apps” section of the Galaxy Store.
But it’s worth noting that Samsung also says that once you upgrade to One UI 7, you won’t be able to re-download its own Edge Panel after uninstalling it.
So, as long as you have a third-party Edge Panel installed at the moment of updating to One UI 7.0, you can continue to use it. But if you uninstall said Edge Panel after you upgrade to One UI 7.0, you won’t be able to re-acquire it — not even via the aforementioned “My Apps” section.
This is seemingly true for both free and paid Edge Panels. If you want to hold on to your paid Edge Panels after you update to One UI 7, you will have to avoid uninstalling them. If you remove them, it looks like they’ll be gone for good.
What this means for us
Aside from the Edge Panel storefront, the Edge Panel feature itself will not be removed in One UI 7.0.Nevertheless, this might be the first step in a lengthier process of slowly phasing out Edge Panels.It wouldn’t surprise us if Samsung may want to discontinue this feature altogether at a later date.
One UI 7.0 promises to deliver a lot of useful features, but apparently, edge panels are not one of them.