TouchWiz is a discontinued user interface developed by Samsung Electronics with partners, featuring a full touch user interface. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as an operating system. TouchWiz was used internally by Samsung for smartphones, feature phones, and tablet computers, and was not available for licensing by external parties. The Android version of TouchWiz also comes with the Samsung-made app store Galaxy Apps. It was replaced by Samsung Experience in 2017 with the release of Android 7.0 "Nougat".
Samsung's approach to its TouchWiz UI was distinct from its Android version updates. While Android updates brought new features and improvements to the operating system, Samsung often customized its UI separately. This meant that even if two devices ran the same Android version, their TouchWiz UI could differ based on the device's release date and hardware capabilities.
For example, the Galaxy S5, released with Android 4.4.2 KitKat, had a version of TouchWiz tailored to its hardware and design. When upgraded to Android Marshmallow, it retained an older version of TouchWiz UI with minor tweaks. On the other hand, the Galaxy S7, which launched with Android Marshmallow, featured a newer version of TouchWiz designed for its advanced hardware and features.
Samsung's strategy was likely aimed at optimizing the user experience for each device rather than standardizing the UI across all models. This approach allowed them to differentiate their devices and ensure compatibility with specific hardware configurations. However, it also led to inconsistencies in the user experience across devices running the same Android version.
History
Overview The first, original edition of TouchWiz (version 1.0) was released in 2008. This 1.0 version was officially launched with the original Samsung Solstice in 2009.; although TouchWiz did first appear on the SGH-F480 Tocco in 2008. The last version of TouchWiz is TouchWiz Grace UX, which is on the Galaxy J1 mini prime LTE and the recalled Galaxy Note 7. TouchWiz Zero UX on the Galaxy J3 (2016) feature a more refined user interface as compared to the previous versions found on Samsung's older phones released prior to Galaxy S5's release. The status bar is now transparent during home screen mode in TouchWiz Nature UX 2.0 and TouchWiz Nature UX 2.5. In TouchWiz 4.0 on Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Note (both later updated to Nature UX), some of the features added include panning and tilt, which makes use of the accelerometer and gyroscope in the phone to detect motion.
TouchWiz is used by Samsung's own proprietary operating systems, Bada and REX, as well as by phones based on the Android operating system prior to Android 7. It is also present in phones running the Tizen operating system.
TouchWiz was succeeded by Samsung Experience in early 2017.
TouchWiz was a central issue in the lawsuit Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics.
TouchWiz 1.0 This was the original edition of TouchWiz, released in 2008, with pre-introduction (trial) on the SGH-F480 (Tocco) phone. It was an evolution of the Croix user interface seen on the SGH-P520 (Armani) and SGH-F700 (Ultra Smart). TouchWiz version 1.0 was officially launched with the original SGH-A887 Solstice, a phone released on AT&T in the United States in 2009. Various versions of TouchWiz 1.0, with different features, were used on Solstice's siblings, such as the Eternity, Impression, Impact, and Highlight.
TouchWiz 2.0 This was the original second edition of TouchWiz, released in 2009. This version premiered with the Solstice 2 in 2010.
TouchWiz 3.0
Released in 2010, to support Android Eclair (2.1) and Android Froyo (2.2). This version premiered with the Galaxy S. A lite version of TouchWiz 3.0, with reduced features, was used on the Galaxy Proclaim.
TouchWiz 4.0
The second version of TouchWiz was released in 2011 to support Android Gingerbread and Android Honeycomb (2.3 - 3.2.6). The Galaxy S II was the first device preloaded with TouchWiz 4.0. This version includes better hardware acceleration than 3.0, as well as multiple touchscreen options involving multi-touch gestures and using the phone's accelerometer. One such feature allows users to place two fingers on the screen and tilt the device towards and away from themselves, to zoom in and out, respectively. "Panning" on TouchWiz 4.0 allows users to scroll through home screens by moving the device from side to side.
TouchWiz Nature UX The third version of TouchWiz was renamed to TouchWiz Nature UX. It was released in 2012 and supported Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and Android Jelly Bean (4.1). The Galaxy S III, Galaxy Star, and Galaxy Note 10.1 were the first devices preloaded with this version, although a "lite" version was used beforehand on the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. The 2013 Galaxy S2 "Plus" variant featured this user interface as well.
TouchWiz Nature UX contains more interactive elements than the previous version, such as a water ripple effect on the lock screen, and "smart stay", a feature that uses eye tracking technology to determine if the user is still watching the screen. Users are able to set custom vibration patterns for phone calls and notifications. The keyboard software is equipped with a clipboard manager. A multi-touch magnification feature and a picture-in-picture mode ("pop-up play") have also been added to the precluded video player, as well as panning and zooming motion gestures in the gallery software. To complement the TouchWiz interface, and as a response to Apple's Siri, this version introduced S Voice, Samsung's Virtual assistant.
The colour palette of the user interface has been adapted to the colours of nature, prosplit-screenen (plants, forest, grass) and blue (ocean, sky), to visually represent the slogan “Inspired by Nature”, and this version of TouchWiz also utilized many colour gradients and skeuomorphic elements. Together, they share many aspects of the design language and aesthetic Frutiger Aero.
Criticism has been aimed at the inability of the home screen and lock screen to work in horizontal display orientation.
Premium suite upgrade With the Android 4.1 update (pre-installed on the Galaxy Note II), Samsung delivered a "premium suite upgrade", whose improvements include a split screen mode, making this the first mobile user interface to run more than one application simultaneously.
Other additions and accessibility improvements are "easy mode", a simplified home screen option with larger icons, "smart rotation", where the screen rotates after the orientation of the user's face detected through the front camera, a low-light shot mode, the ability to adjust the volume of each side of headphones separately, a "reader mode" for Samsung Internet (formerly known as "S Browser") with adjustable font size, "Page Buddy", which can detect the user's intended action such as opening the music player when plugging in earphones, and the ability to read the news feed from Facebook in particular directly from the lock screen well before common lock screen notifications were released with Android 5.0 "Lollipop".
TouchWiz Nature UX 2.0
This version supports Android Jelly Bean (4.2.2) and was released in 2013; the Galaxy S4 was the first device to use TouchWiz Nature UX 2.0. Even more eye-tracking abilities were introduced with this version, such as "smart scroll", which allows users to scroll down and up on webpages by tilting their head downwards and upwards, respectively.
The on-screen buttons for photo, video, and modes now have a metallic texture, and both photo and video recording modes are combined into one viewfinder page rather than separated by switching modes.
The audio setting (mute/vibrate/sound) is also accessible from the device options (power off / restart/data network mode/flight mode), which is accessed by holding the power button.
With Android KitKat, which rolled out in February 2014 to Samsung Galaxy devices, the colours of the green battery icon, as well as the green (upstream) and orange (downstream) indicator arrows in the top status bar, have been changed to grey.
TouchWiz Nature UX 2.5
TouchWiz Nature UX 2.5 was released in 2013 to support the last updates to Android Jelly Bean (4.1–4.3), and was first used on the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition. This version completely supports the Samsung Knox security solution, as well as multi-user capabilities. The camera was also improved in this update: shutter lag was reduced, and features like a 360° panorama mode were added. The settings menu is equipped with a new search feature.
It is the first mobile user interface to feature windowing. To the existing split-screen feature, the abilities to drag and drop items in between and open select apps twice was added.
A vertical one-handed operation mode has been added for the Galaxy Note 3. It can be accessed with a swiping gesture on either side of the screen and allows variably shrinking the simulated size of the screen. It also is equipped with on-screen navigation (options, home, back) and volume keys (up, down).
TouchWiz Nature UX 3.0
This update was released in 2014 to support Android KitKat (4.4). It was first seen on the Galaxy S5, Galaxy K Zoom and the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2. It later appeared on the Galaxy Alpha.
This update was the first version of Samsung's UI to be incompatible with the Galaxy S III and Note II even though these devices already received TouchWiz Nature UX 2.5.
The home screen and settings menu were made more user-friendly with larger icons and less clutter. Also, many skeuomorphic elements were changed for flat design variants, icons in the context menus were removed for minimalism,Context menu on the Galaxy S4 (2013, with icons) and on the Galaxy S5 (2014, without icons) and any disabled options, where previously they would have been visible but unusable (Graphical widget), now do not show up at all.
The one-handed operation mode available on the Galaxy S5 allows setting shortcuts for apps and contacts. A floating menu with user-specified app shortcuts has also been added.
The new colour palette utilizes oceanic colours (e.g. #006578, #00151C, #004754, #009ba1, #005060, #0034da and #001d27Samsung Galaxy S5 screenshot: settings . Please add a PNG screenshot with original (1080×1920) resolution.) to reference the Galaxy S5's water resistance.
Some budget devices, such as the Galaxy Trend 2 Lite, Galaxy J1 Ace, Galaxy V Plus, Galaxy Grand Neo Plus and Galaxy Tab E feature a reduced version of TouchWiz Nature UX 3.0 called "TouchWiz Essence UX", which is adapted for devices with less than 1 GB of RAM. This version has an ultra-power-saving mode, which drastically extends the battery duration by making the screen grayscale, restricting the apps that can be used, and turning off features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
The redesigned settings menu has flat icons instead of previously used self-coloured Clip art, and is equipped with three distinct viewing modes: Grid view, List view and Tab view. Tab view is like list view except the settings are separated by tabs instead of in one long list, similar to the settings on Nature UX 2.0 (S4 and Note 3).How to change the Settings view on Galaxy S5? - WebCazine.com, May 11, 2014
Another minor distinction is that the boot screen shows the Android trademark, but no longer the Product of the device (e.g. SM-G900F, SM-G901F).
TouchWiz Nature UX 3.5