Last year’s flagship Samsung smartphones are getting a new update that will allow for more media types to be shown via the Always-On display mode. Specifically, those devices in the Galaxy S8 family and the Galaxy Note 8 will now be able to utilize animated GIF images that will show even when the display is dimmed in Always-On mode. The images will be static most of the time but will play through when the device is first locked. After that, a double-tap on the screen is required to play the animation again.
This may not seem like a very big deal but it is one of the features that can be found on the company’s newest top-tier devices and so should be a welcomed addition by users who aren’t ready to move on to the newer handsets just yet. The only catch is that this update will only arrive for those particular smartphones if they are running Android 8.0 (Oreo). As always, users who haven’t seen the update on their phone just yet probably shouldn’t be too concerned. The update actually started rolling out to the Galaxy Apps app store a few days ago so it should be arriving sooner rather than later. Samsung also provides some of its own animated GIFs with the update to get users started, or for those users who don’t want to go through the extra effort of finding the perfect image.
Following the update, making use of the new feature first involves navigating through the Settings app to the Lock screen and security category before entering the Always-On Display option. A toggle switch can be clicked on to enable the screensaver-like functionality. To use a GIF, users need to select the type of content they want to be displayed before backing out to the previous menu – Lock screen and security – and selecting Clock and FaceWidgets. GIFs can be added in the “Clock style” setting interface by tapping the “+” symbol after selecting a clock style or one of Samsung’s can be selected via a “add GIF” button.