User Guide

As per previous reports, the features of newly unveiled Galaxy S4 which are not hardware dependent would be available on other Galaxy devices. It was thought that the features would be gradually introduced starting with high end devices like Galaxy S III. But all were amazed to see the Galaxy Grand to be the first to receive the update.

Samsung Galaxy Grand, in its latest update has one feature introduced in Galaxy S4 that is the Group Play. In India all Galaxy Grand devices have started receiving the OTA update.  The Group Play feature enables users to play the same track up to eight devices along with creating a 5.1 surround system. It also supports multiplayer games. However, users can share pictures, documents, and music with other Galaxy Grand users over the same Wi-Fi network.

However, its functionality seems to be a limited in the Galaxy Grand. One reason for the limited functionality is the lack of NFC capability in the Galaxy Grand. The Grands Group Play app allows sharing of pictures, music and documents with other Samsung smartphones connected on the same WiFi network. Users need to select the media item, enter a six digit PIN, and users on the same WiFi network with Group Play enabled handsets will see the item in the app under the Join section. 

The update can be downoaded over the air through the phones settings via Settings>About Device>Software Update>Update. We also checked the Galaxy S III for an update but it looks like Samsung has not seeded or prepared one, as of yet. 

Previous leaks had revealed that the Galaxy S III would also get some of the Galaxy S4s featuresincluding Smart Scroll, Eye Scroll and Eye Pause. A Samsung spokesperson had also said that the Galaxy S III would get some software features from the S4. It looks like Samsung is also passing on the benefits to other devices in the Galaxy series.

A few days back, Samsung had pushed another update to the Galaxy Grand bringing Blocking mode to the phone. The mode allows users to disable notifications for certain features on the device such as incoming calls, alarm and timer and notifications itself, similar to the DND facility in iOS.

No doubt that the feature available on the Galaxy Grand has decreased the functionalities compared to the actual features on the Galaxy S4 but it is still appreciated as it was rolled out with one week of the launch.