The titular edge on Samsung's Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone has always seemed to be more about novelty than functionality. Samsung obviously wants to make a more compelling argument for the edge, and with today's update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow for the S6 and S6 Edge, the company is adding a handful of features and improvements to the software, the Verge said.

First up, the portion of the screen dedicated to the edge interface can now be extended from 260 pixels wide to 550 pixels.

This allows for more content to be displayed and enables new features. There's a new panel available with shortcuts to frequently used apps, and Samsung has updated the contacts panel with names under photographs, and extended the edge's apps feature to display 10 instead of five apps. Users can also now change the appearance of the tab used to access the edge interface, tweaking its size, position, and transparency.