While Android 4.4.2 kit kat has been making its way via slow crawl towards all owners of the Samsung Galaxy S4, today subscribers of Verizon Wireless who own and use the device will finally be getting their taste of the software that has been rolling out to devices for months. It’s worth noting that since this is the initial kit kat update for the VZW Galaxy S4, it’s a pretty big one and there are an extremely large amount of changes coming to the device. With that said the update will be a decent size but nothing too unmanageable unless you literally have no room whatsoever left on your phone, which should be pretty difficult to do.
Let’s get right into the changes you’ll be seeing, although you might already know of some of the more notable ones. There will obviously be some app changes here. G+ photos for instance is being replaced by simply “photos” where your normal gallery set up has been consolidated with your G+ photos into one app. Your normal gallery app will still be accessible of course. While that is one app that is simply being modified after you do the install, there are a few new apps you’ll notice pop up on the device now that you’ll have the proper supported software build, which are ISIS mobile wallet, Emeregency Alert, and VZW Cloud apps. Of course other apps besides the G+ photos app will be changing and being replaced by essentially the same thing just with a revamp. Play Magazines will now become Play Newsstand, and VZ Security is getting replaced by VZ Protect. New apps aren’t the only thing coming through the kit kat update though, some new features will be making their way into your device as well. SMS integration within the Hangouts app will finally be usable as well as the SMS app chooser feature. Users can also expect the Tap To Pay feature to be enabled, and allow for Chromium Webview support.
When it comes to new UI changes coming within the kit kit update, this is where the bulk of the changes seem to take place, so let’s get to it. With the changes of certain apps that already existed before this update, you can expect the app icons to change as well, and that’s just what’s happening. The Apps menu is also being updated, with the removal of the play store access icon from within it, as well as the removal of the share icon and an overall simplification of the UX to look more like the Note 3. The update adds in the G+ user location widget, as well as removes the Play Store menu from within the Widgets menu. You’ll also notice UI changes to a large selection of other apps and menus like Email, the Lock Screen, Multi Window, the Keyboard, Camera, Clock, Contacts, Messaging, and quite a few more parts of the UI. You can check out all of the full details for the Update changelog at the Samsung support page link below, and if you haven’t already updated your device just watch for the OTA notification to hit your status bar, or otherwise check for the software update within settings in the usual place.