REJOICE! Samsung’s Good Lock 2021 is Now Rolling Out…
After what felt like an eternity, Samsung is now in the process of rolling out its Good Lock 2021 suite for its Android 11 phones
When it comes to shipping Android phones with unlocked bootloaders, most OEMS, meaning nearly all of them, simply do not bother. They don’t want you messing around too much inside the guts of Android. Samsung is the exception, however, thanks to its popular Good Lock suite of tools.
What is Samsung’s Good Lock Suite?
Good Lock is a set of Samsung apps, referred to as “modules”, that let the user fully customize certain aspects of Samsung’s ONE UI software. All you have to do in order to begin is head over to Samsung’s Galaxy Store and download the Good Lock launcher.
Each new iteration of Android eventually gets its own Good Luck suite. But because it takes time to roll-out the latest build of Android to ALL of its phones, Samsung’s updates to Good Lock always track pretty far behind the rollout of Android.
For instance, Android 11 started shipping – on some platforms – in 2020. But most OEMs, including Samsung took several months (or more) to release a stable version of Android 11 for their fleet of phones. And in order for Good Lock to work properly, you need a stable build of Android, otherwise you’d run into a bunch of problems.
How To Install Good Lock 2021
If you’re running a Samsung phone or tablet and you have the latest build of Android installed (Android 11), you may be able to download the new Good Lock 2021 suite of applications now. The rollout is currently ongoing, so it is hitting different regions at different times.
You can check if Good Lock is available in your region here.
What Can You Do With Good Lock?
Good Lock is designed with power users in mind, the kind of people that really like to customize their phones. This kind of thing has always been part of Android’s appeal and is why Good Lock exists. Samsung knows a certain amount of its users want to tinker with their phones, so it might as well give them the tools to do it safely.
Looking at the Good Lock forum, I can already see that at least four Good Lock modules have been updated so far. You have newly updated modules for Theme Park and Quickstar, for example, where the former is designed to customize ONE UI 3’s theme based on your wallpaper, while the latter gives you more control over your phone’s settings panel.
There are, however, a bunch of super-important modules that are not yet updated. These include: LockStar, MultiStar, and HomeUp. How long before they are? Unknown. But what is clear is that work is now underway, so finger’s crossed Good Lock’s full suite of apps will soon be updated for ONE UI 3 and Android 11.
