Broken ring error screen, new tab presentation & reining in spammy apps are all part of the story. Plus: video assistant is reborn!

We’ve been busy. (photo credit: Dan Appelquist)

We’ve been busy over the summer at team Samsung Internet and we’re glad to announce the release of Samsung Internet 10.2 to our Beta channel! Along with all you’ve come to expect from Samsung Internet (such as industry-leading Progressive Web App support, smart anti-tracking technology, 3rd party content blocking API and slick OneUI look and feel), it comes with a host of new features and some returning features.

Video Assistant is Back!

Due to popular demand, we’ve re-introduced the video assistant functionality into Samsung Internet. The new video assistant provides assistive functions for web video playback like easy access to full-screen mode, playing in a standalone popup player, or viewing directly on your TV. The popular player lets you watch video while using other apps.

“Allowed Apps” preference screen.

Allowed Apps

Apps are sometimes naughty. In particular, we’ve had a lot of user feedback about their devices showing unwanted web content (usually ads or other promotions), and after some investigation it became clear that many apps were triggering web page views in a way that was not transparent and unwanted. Now, if you have this kind of experience on your phone, you will have the ability to trace which applications are to blame and to block those applications from opening up web content. (We also suggest you delete any apps you have on your phone that are engaging in this deceptive practice.)

New tab layout.

New Tab Presentation

New with 10.2 we are giving you a new way to view your current tabs. The new presentation gives you more info about the tabs you have open in an easy list view. If you prefer the old presentation, you can stick with that.

Quick Access Cloud Sync

For users that choose to sync data with Samsung Cloud, you can now synchronize your quick access shortcuts along with your bookmarks, saved pages and open tabs!

Menu customization screen.

Toolbar Customization

If you’re the type of person who likes to optimize your workspace, you can now customize the buttons you see on the button bar a the bottom of the screen and on the larger menu. Go to Settings in Samsung Internet, select Appearance and you will find the Customize Menu screen right there.

Enhanced Secret Mode

New secret mode “start” screen.

We’ve added some options to secret mode “start” screen so you can turn on our Smart Anti-Tracking feature as well as the do-not-track service. It’s all with the aim of giving people more options and information about resisting privacy-infringing web tracking. We strongly suggest people turn these options on, though tracking protection may break some web content.

The option to “lock” secret mode means you can put your secret mode tabs behind a password (and biometric) security.

Give our Beta a Spin

Beta 10.2 is based on Chrome M71 so you can also expect most of the same underlying features of that build.

Take our Beta for a spin and let us know what you think. You can download it by visiting galaxy.store/internetbeta. If you have feedback, please send us mail on browser@samsung.com and if you have developer facing issues, you can also register these with our issues list on GitHub.

One More Thing

Our new error page design.

Oh, there is one more thing. We hope you only see it rarely, but we’ve also given our error screen a refresh. So when you experience unavoidable errors when using the web, you’ll now see our own on-brand in-house designed “broken ring” graphic. May all your web browsing be unbroken.