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Samsung Galaxy S25 owners treated to unexpected new features in latest update

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A person holding the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The April 2025 security update for the Samsung Galaxy S25 series has many more goodies than initially expected. SamMobile notes that the monthly update isn’t just about fixing vulnerabilities and security holes. It’s also about bringing back a feature and improving others.

In total, the new update for the Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra provides a security patch and includes improvements to camera performance, charging, and general software stability.

Key features of this update include:

  • Media playback improvements – The update finally adds the media playback widget to the notification shade and Now Bar pill in the status bar, a feature that was available on older devices with One UI 7 but had been missing from the S25 series since launch.
  • Animation enhancements – The update brings smoother charging animations and improvements to the Now Bar animation for the media player in the status bar.
  • Bug fixes – The update also addresses issues with Location and Mobile Data quick setting toggles in the Quick Panel.
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The update package size is around 600-780MB, depending on the model. It is currently rolling out, and some regions have already received it.

The Samsung Galaxy S25 series was announced and released earlier this year. All models are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset worldwide and come with 12GB of RAM (16GB options are available for the Ultra model in select markets). The phones launched with Android 15 and One UI 7, and Samsung promised seven years of OS and security updates.

The series features enhanced AI capabilities branded as “Galaxy AI,” including multimodal agents that can interpret text, speech, images, and videos for more natural interactions, an upgraded Google Circle to Search function, context-aware suggestions, and more.

A fourth phone in the lineup, the Galaxy S25 Edge, is expected to launch next month. This phone was teased by Samsung earlier this year.

Bryan M. Wolfe
Former Mobile and A/V Freelancer
Bryan M. Wolfe has over a decade of experience as a technology writer. He writes about mobile.
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