Holy Sh*t They Did It: Samsung’s One UI 7 Brings Back a Vertical App Drawer

Samsung released One UI 7 Beta in the US (and some other countries) this morning and we’ll have a story shortly to explain that program (instructions here), how you can sign-up, etc. But look, I’ve installed it and the first thing I always check with a new Samsung update is whether or not they’ve finally ditched that awful horizontal app drawer that they continued to hang onto for years and years and years, even as the entire world (rightly) decided it was a bad design.

Well, folks…

THEY DID IT. THEY CHANGED TO A VERTICAL APP DRAWER IN ONE UI 7.

EOIUJFLDKJALFDUOJCFLKDSF. OMG.

Look, we’ve publicly complained about this in at least two years of posts, but you all know that we’ve despised Samsung’s horizontal app drawer for as long as they’ve had it. We have spent far too long on 3rd party launchers because of it, leaned on Good Lock’s goofy implementation of a vertical experience, etc. It has been one of the reasons we can’t ever fully love One UI, and that’s because it requires far too much work to get around. And no one should have to live with a horizontal app drawer. No one. Even Google realized this back in 2015.

You no longer have to, Samsung owners. LOOK. AT. THIS.

No settings are required to enable it as Samsung has seen the light and simply switched to a vertical experience with One UI 7 and Android 15. While not perfect, it is so incredible to see. You can scroll with a single flick, drag alphabetically in the slider, or tap the bottom search bar to search for all the things. The only thing we need now is the option to have the keyboard automatically appear when the drawer is open like Google does and life might be close to mobile perfect.

To get the One UI 7 Beta, you’ll need a Galaxy S24, S24+, or S24 Ultra. If you own one, head into the Samsung Members app and look for the banner at the top to join.