Samsung has today begun rolling out its Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update to the international Galaxy S III (GT-I9300), just weeks after the update was made available to Galaxy S4 owners. The release brings a whole host of new features and improvements, including Galaxy Gear support, the ability to move apps to the SD card, and lots of user interface updates.

Until today, Galaxy S III owners were running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, so it seems Samsung has decided to skip Android 4.2 altogether and jump to the latest Jelly Bean release instead — as some reports suggested it would. That’s great news for Galaxy S III owners, who have been waiting for too long for a big software update.

Right now, the update has made its way to devices in Ireland, SamMobile reports, and as is often the case with Samsung updates, it’ll reach other countries in phases over the coming weeks. Samsung doesn’t provide us with change logs, unfortunately, but SamMobile has put together a helpful list of everything that’s new:

CHANGES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN ANDROID 4.3 UPDATE
– GALAXY GEAR Support
– TRIM Support (Makes the device much faster)
– ANT+ Support
– Core UI elements updated to the ones on the Galaxy S4 (Galaxy S4′s theme all over)
– New Samsung Keyboard
– GPU drivers have been updated (Higher GPU benchmark scores)
– New Lockscreen: Multiple Widgets, improved ripple effect than Android 4.1.2, ability to change clock size and set a personal message
– New Screen modes (From S4): Adapt Display and Professional Photo
– Daydream
– Driving mode
– Actionable notifications
– Move-to-SD-card feature
– New Camera mode : Sound and Shot
– New Additions in Notification Centre
– Completely revamped Settings UI (Tabbed interface – Exactly like the Galaxy S4)
– Implementation of Voice controls (Let’s you control various parts of the phone using voice commands – Galaxy S4 feature)
– New Samsung Apps: Calculator, Clock, Contacts, Gallery, Music
– Full screen Samsung apps
– New S-Voice (from Galaxy S4)
– Found more? Tell us about them in the comments below!

If you have an international Galaxy S III, don’t worry if you can’t see the update just yet — it may take a little while for it to make its way to your device. Just keep an eye on your notifications over the coming weeks. As you can see from the list above, it’ll be well worth the wait.

• SourceSamMobile