Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung has officially announced One UI 9 beta for the Galaxy S26 series.
- It will be available to users in South Korea, Germany, India, Poland, the U.K., and the U.S.
- Samsung says the update is coming this week with improvements to the Quick Settings, Notes app, Contact Cards, etc.
One UI 8.5 hasn’t even been out for a minute, and Samsung is now ready to host another beta program. After announcing stable One UI 8.5 last week and initiating the global rollout yesterday, Samsung is now officially starting off the beta for One UI 9.
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Samsung has officially announced the One UI 9 beta, based on Android 17, for the Galaxy S26 series. The program will be available for users in South Korea, Germany, India, Poland, the U.K., and the U.S. this week. Although the update isn’t quite unexpected, given that Samsung has already been testing it internally, we were taken aback by the promptness of the move.
One UI 9 is expected to bring a cleaner, more fluid interface, with an even heavier dose of AI than One UI 8.5. Along with those changes, Samsung has highlighted the following changes coming with the update:
- New pens and decorative tools in Samsung Notes
- Contact cards created with Creative Studio
- Text Spotlight, which shows selected text in a floating window
- Customizable mouse speed settings
In addition to these, Samsung also claims to have updated the Quick Settings panel with individual controls to resize brightness and volume sliders, as well as media controls. Although these controls have already been added with One UI 8.5, we can anticipate some improvements, such as greater flexibility in resizing.
While Samsung hasn’t commented on the timeline for One UI 9’s stable release, its upcoming Unpacked event in July could be the ideal platform. At this event, Samsung is set to unveil the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Flip 8, and a new Wide Fold, as a preemptive rival to the rumored iPhone Fold.
Besides these devices, which might launch with One UI 9, and the Galaxy S26, which is already approved for the beta, Samsung might also expand the scope to other older Galaxy devices, though it’s difficult to predict the exact rollout.
Get One UI 9 beta on Galaxy S26
To sign up for One UI 9 beta on your Galaxy S26, look out for the beta section on the Samsung Members app. Here, you can register your interest in testing the update. Once Samsung starts rolling it out, you will receive the beta update like a regular OTA.
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