When Samsung debuted its new Magazine UX user interface at CES earlier this month, Google was reportedly displeased by it because the new UI, which looked like a mix of Flipboard and Microsoft's Metro, was a radical departure from the search giant's vision of Android. What followed was a series of broad agreements to bring Samsung's take on Android in line with Google's own.
As part of a new agreement between the two, Samsung will reportedly either tweak the Magazine UX interface or completely dump it altogether. In addition, upcoming Android devices from Samsung will put the spotlight back on Google's suite of apps (music, video, and more), eliminating Samsung's in-house app suite. This means that existing apps such as WatchON, ChatON, and more, could disappear in the future.
For quite some time now, manufacturers have been pushing out Android devices that put a number of their own homegrown apps on the forefront instead of Google's. This is probably the reason why Google is pressuring Samsung, the leading manufacturer of Android devices, to dial back its new UI and in-house software apps.
It is not yet known what Samsung got out of this deal. The report suggests that the search giant might have agreed to work with Samsung for a future Nexus device, or it could be something else. But one thing is for sure, the relationship between the two companies has gone through a major overhaul, especially after both companies announced a broad deal to license one another's patents.