I don’t need to go on a whole new spiel about how Samsung’s One UI 7 release campaign has been a mess. You know all about that already. However, considering the rollout finally commenced about a week ago, it was annoying to hear that a bug and “maintenance” forced Samsung to pause that rollout. How long will I and my S22 Ultra have to wait?
One UI 7 aside, it might be wiser to look towards the future. Android 16 is expected to launch a lot earlier than its predecessor—in the first half of the year—and as a result, Samsung is already working on One UI 8. In fact, it is so far into the process that we’ve been able to get a sneak peek at the Z Fold 6 running the new OS. Let’s talk about it.
Working Builds of One UI 8 Are Already Out in the Wild
While most eligible Samsung users are still waiting for One UI 7 over half a year since Android 15 was made official, Samsung has no choice but to prepare for the next iteration of its famous OS. Android 16’s launch this year is expected to be in June, and if Samsung doesn’t hustle, it might end up having another One UI 7 situation with its upcoming release.
Well, if we needed evidence that Samsung has decided to put its focus on One UI 8, it is here, courtesy of Smartprix, only a week and some days after the stable version of One UI 7 started rolling out to older Samsung devices. That alone shows how botched the timeline for release became.
Smartprix was able to get One UI 8 running on a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, which will be one of the first devices in line for the update when the time comes. One UI 8 makes some changes to the visual elements of the Gallery and File Manager apps, but for the most part, it seems like it will focus on optimizations and non-visual elements. After all, One UI 7 is meant to be the one that’s the big aesthetic overhaul.
One UI 8 Is Still Early in Development, So a Lot Can Still Change
If an earlier rumor turns out to be true, One UI 8 is expected to launch with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Fold 7. If that’s the case, then there are still as many as three months left until it launches, and that means that this leaked look at it shouldn’t be considered a definitive indication of the final product.
Besides visual changes that might still make it in later on, we do know that the Galaxy S25-exclusive Now Brief feature will find its way to older flagships, so that’s a nice little treat. The current build of One UI 8 has already integrated it.
Samsung’s Paused One UI 7 Rollout for the S24 Series Is Expected to Resume “Soon”
After pausing the rollout of stable One UI 7 just about a week after it started, things didn’t look good for Samsung, and I expected a delay of up to a week before the rollout would resume. However, Samsung might be ready to put me to shame, as it confirmed that the rollout will “resume soon”. Hopefully, that should mean tomorrow or the day after at the latest.
