Earlier this month a handful of leaked images revealed that Samsung may be working on implementing a new feature in some of its upcoming smartphones, called “Smart Glow”. On short, Smart Glow is supposed to be an LED notification ring surrounding a smartphone’s main camera that informs the user on a variety of aspects at a glance. However, sources of SamMobile have reportedly acquired new information regarding Smart Glow and how the LED’s functionality could expand in the future. Although Smart Glow is rumored to debut on the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016) set to hit the mobile market in India, other, future smartphones are now rumored to expand on the Smart Glow functionality in a variety of interesting ways.
According to the report, the functionality of Smart Glow will initially be split into three main categories. First, there will be so-called “priority alerts” which will apparently work similarly to how Edge lighting on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It will allow users to color-code contacts, and in turn, the Smart Glow LED ring will glow accordingly whenever an incoming call or message connects. Then there will be “usage alerts”, designed to offer quick information regarding certain aspects of the phone, including charging alerts and battery life. The third and last category will be Selfie assist, which should help users capture selfies using the main camera by having the Smart Glow ring glow blue whenever the sensor detects a face.
The source reports that priority alerts, usage alerts, and Selfie assist will debut on the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016), but also adds that Samsung will expand the functionality of Smart Glow with future smartphone models. Reportedly, Smart Glow could eventually expand “usage alerts” to cover other areas of the phone, including storage and data usage. Furthermore, Selfie assist could improve further and offer directions for framing the subject with more ease, by lighting up only certain parts of the Smart Glow ring. The same LED notification system could provide weather information too, by glowing yellow to represent sunshine, or glow blue to indicate that it’s raining and so on. Last but not least, the source mentions that the Smart Glow ring could also play a role in Samsung’s Health application, at least for future smartphone models which will use their on-board cameras and LED flashes to determine the user’s heart rate. However, it’s unclear what type of Health-related notifications will be shared through the Smart Glow ring. Either way, keep in mind that the information is not official and remains subject to change, but if the rumors are true then the first glimpse at the first Smart Glow implementation will be offered by the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2016).