Backporting newer features to legacy phones via software updates is a novel practice to make them relevant. The lifetime of the phones is incredibly small nowadays, so companies can justify the cost of their flagships by providing periodic feature updates.
Well, there is a catch! Sometimes the companies added such addon features in a particular regional and/or carrier firmware build before the wider rollout. For example, the long-anticipated Call & Message Continuity (CMC) feature was initially available only on the Australian Samsung Galaxy devices.
Perhaps the navigational haptic feedback functionality should be considered as such a how-can-I-get that component. Samsung introduced it as part of the One UI, so Galaxy S10 lineup should support the feature out of the box.
Apparently that’s not the story of the owners of the US carrier unlocked variant of Galaxy S10. The last two software updates with August security patches actually enabled the option for them.
While granular customization options are preferred by many users, Samsung apparently engineered it wrong. Disabling the haptic feedback also reportedly disables vibration when swiping in the pattern to unlock the device.
Guess international Galaxy Note 9 users are pretty much excited (or annoyed) to experience the same, as the now have the exact same option under ‘System sounds and vibration’. FYI, the feature appears after installing the September security patch (with build number CSI3).
Judging from the user feedback, some regional variants of the Galaxy Note 9 got the haptic feedback for navigation gestures earlier than expected. Nevertheless, the September update marks the wider rollout of this feature.
It was added in the July update for Canada. Funnily enough, my mom’s US unlocked S10e didn’t get this until the August update for that model.
(Source)
This setting was already in my US unlocked Note 9 on August 1st, 2019 patch.
(Source)
I presume the Android community can find many such hidden easter eggs in the OTAs pushed by Samsung. Funny enough, as the Korean OEM internally maintains virtually identical changelogs for the last few software updates for Galaxy Note 9.
Do you prefer the new vibration related enhancements on your Galaxy Note 9? Let us know by commenting below.
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Galaxy Note 9
Kingshuk De
896 Posts
I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.
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