After a number of delays, Samsung finally has a date in mind for One UI 7 — the operating system update based on Android 15 — to roll out to its older handsets.
In a press release published on the Samsung newsroom, the company revealed the update will begin distribution on April 7 to Galaxy S24, Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 handsets, with other phones and tablets to follow.
A timeline for the other devices isn’t provided, but Samsung does at least namecheck a few that will be next in line.
Owners of the following devices can all expect the one UI 7 update soon:
Galaxy S21 and S22 handsets should also be eligible, given Samsung’s pledge of four years of platform updates, but they’re not listed here, and the slow rollout so far doesn’t inspire confidence that it’ll be any time soon.
As well as introducing features introduced by Google in Android 15, the One UI update adds some additional Samsung extras.
The update brings a “simplified home screen” and “redesigned One UI widgets”, as well as introducing the Now Bar to provide “real-time updates that matter most right on the lock screen”.
More importantly, the update will bring some AI updates that were hitherto exclusive to the flagship Galaxy S25 series. Writing Assist lets you summarize or format contents of text, Drawing Assist lets you instantly generate images based on text or your own sketches, while Audio Eraser isolates and removes unwanted noise from videos.
All of these have footnotes on them with caveats about performance and availability, but they all appear to be supported by the first batch of devices at least.
Better late than never
It has been a long road getting here, with work on One UI 7 reportedly starting in May last year.
Android 15 has been on Google Pixel phones since October 15, but even before then there were rumors of delays on Samsung’s end with its One UI 7 implementation. Though a beta for S24 devices arrived in December, a full stable release was eventually kicked into 2025.
One UI 7 launched on Galaxy S25 devices in February, but there was still no sign of a stable release for the company’s older phones. By the time April 7 rolls around, it will be 174 days between the arrival of Android 15 on the Google Pixel 8 and One UI 7 showing up on the Samsung Galaxy S24.
By the time April 7 rolls around, it will be 174 days between the arrival of Android 15 on the Google Pixel 8 and One UI 7 showing up on the Samsung Galaxy S24.
As Android Authority wrote last month, this is a reminder of the bad old days of Samsung, when devices took months to catch up with the hot new versions of Android.
Indeed, the site highlights Android 2.3, which launched on December 6 2010 but didn’t arrive on Samsung devices until May 16 2011.
That’s a total of 161 days — 13 days less than the gap between Android 15 arriving on Pixel phones and One UI 7’s delayed April 7 rollout. Hopefully One UI 8 will put Samsung back on track.
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