Samsung’s Internet web browser might not be as popular as Google Chrome, but it still boasts of a sizeable user base. The Chromium-based browser has received a new beta version (v18), and with it comes a host of improvements and new safety features.
The most eye-catching feature is the introduction of a way to extract text from images you come across online, similar to Apple’s Live Text feature, which does the same thing.
Improvement has also been made to the browser’s anti-tracking technology so that new tracking technologies like the use of CNAME cloaking can be effectively dealt with. V18 of the browser has also been configured to always default to the more secure HTTPS protocol.
To enable the browser to always default to HTTPS, you will have to use the Privacy Dashboard menu, instead of the Labs section, as is the case on older versions of the browser. You can also add extensions like Ad Blockers or password managers to your Samsung browser.
To get started on extracting text from web pages, you need to long-press any image and then click on Extract Text. A menu will appear from which you can select the various prompts to either copy, share or translate the selected text.
However, it is important to note that this feature is not available to all Samsung Galaxy devices, but rather on only those smartphones running the latest One UI 4 version which at the moment is 4.1.1.
This basically restricts this feature to the Samsung Galaxy S22 series, as most other Samsung devices including the Galaxy Fold 3 are still on One UI 4.1. Samsung will definitely roll out an update in the near future to get more phones on the latest One UI 4 version.
In a UI tweak, the toolbar has also been configured to appear where it makes the most sense depending on the type of device you are using. It will appear towards the bottom on regular-sized phones, while on larger phones like the foldables and tablets, it will appear just beside the URL bar.
If you are interested, you can also download the Samsung browser on your non-Samsung smartphone or tablet. However, it is worth noting that despite the web browser using the updated Chromium web browsing engine(v99), it is still a few versions behind the current non-beta release of the Chromium framework.
