It will be a while before true under-screen cameras are good enough to replace the now very common punch hole camera, so it seems Samsung decided they might as well make the most of the persistent visual artefact.
The company already uses the area for some indications e.g. when you switch to the selfie camera there is a small animation around the ring, and when you use the picture timer on the selfie camera the countdown also shows a clock-like animation, which can be seen in the screenshot below:
Several design patents uncovered by LetsGoDigital suggests Samsung may also use the area for other, non-camera related notifications.
The five design patents, which were filed with CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) on October 16, 2019, suggests that an indicator around the selfie camera could be used to time a download for example.
Samsung suggests the animation could be vertical or horizontal depending on whether it’s a dual or single punch hole selfie camera.
When punch-hole cameras were introduced some were concerned that they would be distracting, but I think they faded in rather well into the background. How would our readers feel if Samsung actually regularly drew attention to them? Let us know in the comments below.