What you need to know
- Samsung's One UI 7 update is delayed — a beta release will come later this year, but the stable build won't drop until 2025.
- Part of the reason for the delay could be Samsung's lofty goals for One UI, which it wants to run on TVs and home appliances.
- The late arrival for One UI 7 might not be that big of a deal if it has the feature set to match or beat One UI 6.1, the major One UI update that launched with the Galaxy S24 series this year.
All eyes are on Samsung and Google as both companies gear up to release their next full OS update behind schedule. Samsung confirmed last week that One UI 7 won't release in stable form until next year, most likely aligning with the release of the Galaxy S25 series. How big of a deal is that? It depends, but if One UI 7 is as massive of an overhaul as Samsung is hinting it is, the delay might not be worth batting an eye at.
The Samsung Developer Conference just happened, and we learned a lot about the company's software strategy. One UI 7 will release in beta before the end of this year, and the public launch will be in early 2025. That confirms what many expected: development is well behind schedule. For reference, the One UI 6 beta became available in August 2023.
At the conference, Samsung executives said that One UI 7 is all about refinement. The company wants to make One UI user experience simple, create visuals that make One UI stand out, and ship visuals with character.
More importantly, it's putting the "one" in One UI, and trying to make it a universal operating system across Samsung's vast portfolio of products. It's easy to forget that the South Korean giant makes everything from phones and watches to TVs and washing machines.
Though the company didn't share many details, it explained in a press release that "it will integrate the software experience of its major product lines — from mobile devices to TVs and home appliances — under the name One UI next year." Although that same release mentions Tizen — the OS that currently powers Samsung's smart TVs — it would seem that Samsung eyes a future where One UI is everywhere.
In that context, the delay of One UI 7 might not be such a bad thing. The next version seems like a big and ambitious update, and we've seen what can happen when software updates are rushed.
Just last month, Apple released an iPadOS 18 update for the M4 iPad Pro that completely bricked the tablets. It pulled the update for weeks before issuing an iPadOS 18.0.1 version that fixed the problem. For a period of weeks, Apple's most expensive iPad couldn't run its best and newest OS without turning itself into a paperweight.
If Samsung's delay helps it avoid the kind of software fiascos that have plagued Apple and Google at times, One UI 7 might be worth the wait. That's without mentioning the host of new features that are set to come to the operating system. Or, that Samsung plans to integrate multiple separate platforms under the One UI name next year.
Is One UI 7 just this year's version of One UI 6.1?
Samsung's approach to releasing One UI 7 might not be as different from past years as you might think. Last year, it released One UI 6, based off Android 14, at the tail end of 2023. However, the full feature set that would characterize One UI 6 didn't actually arrive until One UI 6.1, which launched alongside the Galaxy S24 series in January 2024.
One UI 6 gave us Android 14, but it was One UI 6.1 that gave us Galaxy AI and Circle to Search, among other features. While those have since arrived on other devices, through the One UI 6.1.1 update and others, it sets a precedent. Samsung is no stranger to holding its best features for release alongside a series of new flagship phones. If One UI 7 brings exciting and new features like One UI 6.1 did, this release schedule isn't all too different from last year's.
Of course, the main difference is that the base One UI 7 with Android 15 isn't releasing ahead of that bigger update this time around. Normally, that would be frustrating, but it has been a strange year for Android. The official Android 15 update for Pixels still isn't here yet, but the AOSP version of Android 15 is live, creating some confusion.
All this is to say that Samsung releasing One UI 7 a few months later than usual wouldn't be the end of the world if it has the feature set and stability to match the extra time spent. If Samsung can cut down on the bloat and duplicate apps, I'd be thrilled.
