Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- One UI 7 will allow you to prevent HDR photos from making your Galaxy phone screen super bright.
- Indeed, the “Super HDR” toggle in One UI 7 now works system-wide and no longer just in the Samsung Gallery app.
- New “Super HDR” toggle location in One UI 7 is in the works Settings > Advanced features.
To fully appreciate the benefits of HDR photography, you need a device with an HDR-compatible display. When viewed on such a screen, HDR photos reveal more detail in highlights and shadows. However, to accurately reproduce this wide dynamic range, the screen often needs to significantly increase its brightness. This sudden change in brightness can be jarring, especially when browsing social media at night. As a result, some users have looked for ways to temporarily prevent their Android phones from displaying HDR content, but the Android operating system does not offer such an option. Fortunately, Samsung fixes this issue on its own in its upcoming One UI 7 update for Galaxy devices.
You are reading a Authority information history. Discover Authority Knowledge for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won’t find anywhere else.
While browsing the One UI 7 beta for the Galaxy S24, we discovered that Samsung had moved the “Super HDR” toggle. Instead of being integrated into the Samsung Gallery app settings, “Super HDR” is now under Settings > Advanced features in One UI 7. The description for the “Super HDR” toggle remains unchanged in One UI 7, still stating that it “automatically adjusts[s] the screen to display the full color gamut and contrast of photos taken with Galaxy devices.
In One UI 6.1.1 and earlier, disabling the “Super HDR” toggle only prevented One UI from adjusting screen brightness when viewing HDR photos in the Samsung Gallery app. With the “Super HDR” toggle now located in the General Settings app, we figured it would now work system-wide. This has been confirmed by three beta testers. One of these testers, Reddit user Fragmented Chickeneven shared a brief video demonstrating the new behavior of the “Super HDR” toggle in One UI 7.
The reason disabling “Super HDR” affects apps like Instagram and Threads is because Samsung’s “Super HDR” feature internally uses Google’s Ultra HDR image format. Ultra HDR is Google’s effort to create a universally supported HDR image format. Introduced in Android 14 and based on the JPEG format, it works on virtually any device or platform, regardless of their display capabilities. Devices and platforms that do not recognize HDR metadata will display the SDR version of the image, while those that do will display the intended HDR version.
Therefore, since Instagram and Threads support Ultra HDR images, Galaxy devices with “Super HDR” enabled can view Ultra HDR content uploaded to either platform. Therefore, disabling “Super HDR” in Settings disables support for viewing this HDR content, preventing screen brightening. If you own a Galaxy phone or tablet and want a more comfortable social media browsing experience at night, consider turning off “Super HDR” under Settings > Advanced features once your device receives the One UI 7 update.
