One UI 8: Features I want to see and what we know so far about Samsung’s next update!

Samsung’s One UI 7 software release, based on Android 15, is finally rolling out globally, so it’s time to look forward to the next platform update. The company is expected to skip x.1 and x.1.1 versioning this year and go straight to One UI 8 with the launch of its upcoming foldables, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7. These foldables and the new platform update are still some months away, so here’s what we want to see with Android 16-based One UI 8, and what we know about the update so far!

One UI 8: Features we want to see

We thoroughly praised One UI 7 in our review and were impressed with what Samsung had cooked up for the update. However, it isn’t a perfect update, so much of what we want to see on One UI 8 is a continuation of our experiences with One UI 7.

The biggest complaint with One UI 7 is that Samsung dropped the ball on it. Once known for super-delayed TouchWiz updates, the company had superbly cleaned up its act with One UI, offering quick platform update rollouts and absolutely on-point security updates. In fact, Samsung often even beat Google in rolling out the latest security update, sometimes even before the security bulletin was released!

With One UI 7, Samsung unfortunately took its own sweet time. While beta testing an update is a great practice and ultimately beneficial for consumers, it was clear that the company was delaying the update to benefit its Galaxy S25 series, as there were so few hardware upgrades on the lineup otherwise. The delay beyond the device launch gave the S25 series a bit more exclusivity for its AI features, and even then, Samsung is reserving some features like Now Brief for the top dogs.

For One UI 8, we want Samsung to clean up its act. We hope for an efficient beta program, smooth sailing, stable rollout, and broader availability of highlight features. Fans are disappointed with Samsung, so this is the company’s chance to win them back.

Now Brief is a highlight feature of the Galaxy S25 series, and it is quite similar in functionality to Pixel’s At a Glance feature. Now Brief presents many quick updates, such as weather, calendar appointments, and news, and it even recommends Spotify playlists.

However, there’s plenty of room for Now Brief to improve. We’d love to see Now Brief support more third-party apps, like Tick Tick and other task apps. We’d also love to see YouTube Music and even Apple Music support, if possible, as Now Brief currently supports Spotify only.

Further, Now Brief is currently restricted to the Galaxy S25 series only. However, there isn’t enough reason for the feature not to reach older Samsung flagships. There are clues that Samsung will be expanding access, but we hope to see the feature reach many more phones beyond the older flagships.

Android and One UI’s notification management is far superior to iOS’s, but that doesn’t mean we can’t optionally adopt some more management features. Even though iPhone’s notification summaries have been criticized for getting content wildly wrong because of the limited context offered to AI, they’re still a very helpful feature for those of us who receive a lot of notifications every day.

With One UI 8, we wish to see Samsung implement an AI-based notification summary system. This could neatly summarize notifications (and clearly indicate when it is doing so, to minimize confusion), so that users can quickly glance through a larger volume of notifications. Notifications that call into the user’s urgency can be adequately highlighted, like iOS does with Priority Notifications. Yes, Apple did it first, but Samsung has the chance to show the world that it can do it better.

Samsung introduced a Battery Health page on its devices with One UI 7. However, only some devices like the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, and the Galaxy Tab S10 series have it. Other devices, like the Galaxy S24 series, don’t get this rather helpful feature. We’d love for information related to battery health become readily available for as many devices as possible within the hardware limitations.

Gemini is an integral part of the Android flagship experience. While you can use Gemini on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip foldables, you must flip open the device to do so on One UI 7.

With One UI 8, we’d love to see Samsung bring the ability to use the Gemini AI Assistant on the cover screen of Flip foldables. After all, the point of the cover screen on Flip phones is to give you fewer reasons to open the device.

Change the keyboard on the cover screen of Flip foldables

Another One UI 7 shortcoming is that you are restricted to using Samsung Keyboard on the cover display of Flip foldables. While this keyboard is well optimized, we’d also love the ability to use other keyboards like Gboard on the cover display, especially if we have set it so for the main display. The ideal way would be to allow users to set two keyboards, one for the cover display and one for the main. We hope to see One UI 8 bring this to fruition.

Samsung’s Secure Folder feature is fairly widely used by many people to keep their files and apps hidden from others who may chance upon their phone. The feature creates a new work profile with its own storage space and screen lock, keeping sensitive apps and files private.

Samsung usually reserves a full version increase for One UI for its Android platform update. For example, One UI 5 was released in October 2022 with the Android 13 platform update, and One UI 6 was released in October 2023 with Android 14 in tow.

When the Galaxy S-series flagships were eventually launched, One UI received a x.1 version bump. One UI 5.1 was released in February 2023 with the Galaxy S23 series, and One UI 6.1 was released in January 2024 with the Galaxy S24 series. Similarly, the launch of Samsung’s foldables in the middle of the year brings an x.x.1 version bump. One UI 5.1.1 arrived in August 2023 with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5, and One UI 6.1.1 arrived in July 2024 with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6.

With One UI 7, all of this history goes for a toss. Even though Google released Android 15 in October 2024, Samsung chose to delay the stable rollout for its older flagships until its newest Galaxy S25 series phone launched in January 2025. The update continued to be further delayed for older flagships, and global stable rollout began only in late April 2025. That’s half a year of delay for the platform update to reach more Samsung phones.

Samsung has already broken its own tradition here, and the company is said to be experimenting even further for One UI 8. According to leaker Ice Universe, Samsung plans to release One UI 8 based on Android 16 much sooner than previously anticipated. This was expected in some ways since Google is also planning to release Android 16 early in Q2 2025, most likely around Google I/O in May.

Ice Universe followed up on their leak by saying that the company’s next version release after One UI 7.0 is One UI 8.0, skipping over One UI 7.1 and One UI 7.1.1 releases. Samsung has also been spotted testing the One UI 8 update based on Android 16, so there’s reason to believe this is happening.

With One UI 7.1 and 7.1.1 not expected to happen, when is stable One UI 8 coming? Sammobile says the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 are expected to run One UI 8 based on Android 16 right out of the box. But when are those flagships coming? A report from South Korea’s Korea Joongang Daily suggests that Samsung will hold an Unpacked event in New York for the new foldables, “most likely” in the first week of July 2025. Samsung waited to launch its new OS, One UI 7, with its latest flagship, Galaxy S25, and we expect the same with One UI 8 and the next generation of Galaxy foldable flagships.

To round it up, we’re expecting Samsung to launch One UI 8 based on Android 16 in the first week of July 2025, alongside the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Samsung runs beta programs for its updates, testing them out on older flagships before launching the stable release first on new flagships. The company ran a rather extensive beta program for One UI 7, so it’s fair to presume it will also run a beta program for One UI 8. Internal test builds have already been spotted, so it’s just a matter of graduating them to closed and open betas before they hit the stable release track.

However, Samsung hasn’t yet confirmed that it will indeed run a One UI 8 beta program. A report from Sammobile claims that Samsung could even skip a beta program for One UI 8! We expect the company to provide more information once Android 16 launches in the stable branch, which could happen close to Google I/O in May.

Even before One UI 7 could resume its global rollout to older flagships, an internal test build of One UI 8 had already leaked, giving us a good look at what’s coming.

However, there’s disappointment ahead, as One UI 8 isn’t expected to be a substantial update over One UI 7, unlike how big of a change One UI 7 was over One UI 6. Reports from Smartprix and Sammobile showcase very few changes over the previous build. In some instances, Samsung is merely turning on the feature in One UI 8, the code for which already existed in a dormant fashion on One UI 7.

The internal test build of One UI 8 suggests that the big feature addition here would be the rollout of Galaxy S25’s Now Brief feature from One UI 7 to more devices, including older flagships.

The leaked builds showcased shaded icons in the Quick Settings panel (though this could be a bug) and encircled icons for some menu buttons within the Gallery and File Manager apps.

One UI 8 is also said to add log video recording support to the camera app. This isn’t a new feature per se, since it debuted with One UI 7 on the Galaxy S25 series and even reached the Galaxy S24 series with its One UI 7 update.

New improvements include changes to Quick Share, with its menu now housing two sections: Receive and Send. Switching to the Receive tab automatically makes your device temporarily visible to other devices and stops when you leave it. This is said to be better than toggling visibility settings on a timer.

The big visual change that would be new for all users could be the revamped Samsung Weather app. According to details shared by X user, Gerwin van Giessen, the redesigned One UI 8 Weather app could include full-screen animated scenes that vividly depict real-time weather conditions. These animations may not just be decorative; they could feature people and objects interacting with the environment.

For example, during rainy weather, the Weather app on One UI 8 could show tiny animated figures walking under umbrellas. On sunny days, rays of sunlight could cut through shifting clouds, creating a more vibrant and realistic representation of the current weather. Similar effects are said to accompany other weather conditions, such as snow or wind.

While this updated Weather app will be part of One UI 8, you don’t have to wait for the rollout to try it. The updated app is already available for download, and the APK can be installed on any compatible device.

Hence, so far, One UI 8 appears to be nothing more than One UI 7.1 or 7.1.1, depending on what features Samsung finally decides to add to its device portfolio.

Samsung hasn’t yet formally confirmed which devices will receive One UI 8. However, the company has frequently shared the number of Android platform updates every device in its portfolio will receive. Using this information, we can put together a reasonably confident list of devices that will receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, as shown below. However, remember that the older the device, the longer it will take for the update to arrive.

Samsung Galaxy S-series

The following Galaxy S-series are expected to receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, based on Samsung’s update promises:

Samsung Galaxy Z-series

The following Galaxy Z-series fold and flip foldables are expected to receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, based on Samsung’s update promises:

Samsung Galaxy A-series

The following Galaxy A-series mid-range and budget smartphones are expected to receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, based on Samsung’s update promises:

Samsung Galaxy M-series and F-series

The following Galaxy M-series and F-series mid-range and budget smartphones are expected to receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, based on Samsung’s update promises:

Samsung Galaxy Tab series

The following Galaxy Tab-series tablets are expected to receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, based on Samsung’s update promises:

Other Samsung Galaxy devices

Samsung also has other Android phones and tablets outside its main established product lines. These

The following Galaxy Tab-series tablets are expected to receive the Android 16-based One UI 8 update, based on Samsung’s update promises:

• Galaxy XCover 7 Pro
• Galaxy XCover 7

We’ll update the list once Samsung shares more information about the devices.

What are your thoughts on One UI 8? Let us know in the comments below!