Samsung gets its Good Lock modules ready for One UI 4 in record time 

Plus some new features are along for the ride 

To call Good Lock one of the most popular parts of One UI would be something of an understatement. Users love it so much that they don't want to go without, and every year when we write about the latest One UI beta, some commenters always say they won't update until certain Good Lock modules are fully compatible. Last year, we had to wait until January for those updates to start catching up, and others took even longer. Thankfully, we've got no such delay this time around, and as of now every single module in the Good Lock suite is compatible with One UI 4 and Android 12.

Samsung wasted no time getting started with its Android updates this year, with the S21 series receiving its update over a month faster than the S20 got Android 11 and One UI 3 last year. Outside of the S21 series, users with the Galaxy Fold3, Flip3, S20, and Note20 can all enjoy the beta right now, with most of those phones expecting to see a stable release in December or January. Several Good Lock modules already got started adapting to One UI 4 during the S21's beta period, and in the last few days the remaining stragglers have caught up. Most modules have only received compatibility updates with no new features, but that isn't the case for all of them.

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There aren't that many new additions, but the ones that are here are certainly useful. MultiStar has gained a new I ❤️ DeX menu, which lets run more than five apps at a time, use higher resolutions for external displays, and automatically reopen the last app from when you were using DeX previously. The changelog also mentions "rotate DeX with our best in DeX on tablet screen, " but since there aren't any Galaxy tablets running One UI 4 yet, we haven't been able to see what this does yet — it almost sounds like you'll be able to set DeX as your main homescreen. If that's the case, this could be a game changer and something I would like to see come to my Fold3. MultiStar has also gained an option to disable the new blur effect when adjusting multi-window.

Theme Park adds the ability to use icon packs downloaded from the Play Store, fulfilling the hopes and dreams of countless users in the process. This was technically available before Android 12, but it was limited to foldables running One UI 3.1.1, so we're counting this as the main release. If you don't like Samsung's squircle icons and aren't interested in icon packs, you can adjust the adaptive icon shape instead, with plenty of options to choose from. This works the same as the icon customization Pixels had on Android 11 until Google removed it in Android 12 — Samsung giveth, Google taketh away. SoundAssistant got a minor update, adding Material You theming to the quick tools panel and new shortcuts for NFC and DND.

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Home Up now lets you enable a vertical app drawer, fixing one of the few remaining criticisms I had for One UI. It should be noted that while this is a brand new feature, it's only available in One UI 3 for now — the changelog says it'll come to One UI 4 "when it's stabilized."

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Aside from those, Good Lock's working largely the same as it did in One UI 3. All of the modules are now compatible, and all of their features work the same, if not better, than before. QuickStar, for example, has always let you hide certain icons from the status bar, just like the old System UI tuner in Android Marshmallow. In One UI 4, disabling some of these icons stops the Fold3 from putting the Wi-Fi icon on the other side of the under-display camera.

These updates should be available now through the Galaxy Store, but my Fold3 isn't seeing some of them (while my S21 is). If that's the case for you, or if you live in a region where Good Lock isn't officially available, you can find all of the APKs we currently have available below. Some of these apps didn't need updating for One UI 4, so they're the same as they were months ago, but for completeness, I've still included links to them.

About The Author

Zachary Kew-Denniss (227 Articles Published)

UK-based Android aficionado specializing in everything Samsung and Android. There's a 90% chance my articles will contain Spongebob or Transformers references.

Current devices:

Galaxy S21 Ultra Galaxy Watch4 Galaxy Buds/Buds+/Buds Pro Pixelbook iPad Pro 2020

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