One UI 9 Beta
Samsung has officially announced the beta programme of One UI 9. The new software, based on Android 17, will appear first this week for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. With the update, Samsung mainly wants to focus on a more personalised experience, additional creative features and better security.
One of the most notable changes is in Samsung Notes. There, you get new creative options such as decorative tapes and additional styles for pen strokes. Also, you can now create personal profile cards directly from the contacts app via Creative Studio, without having to switch between different apps.
In addition, the quick settings menu gets a major refresh. Users can independently adjust and rearrange items such as brightness, volume and the media player. Samsung thus gives more freedom to customise the look of the Quick Panel. Samsung is also making improvements in terms of accessibility. For instance, you can adjust the speed of the mouse cursor for more precise control. Furthermore, existing TalkBack features from Google and Samsung are merged into one package. A new feature called Text Spotlight makes selected text larger or more clearly visible in a separate window, which should make reading easier.
Security also plays an important role in One UI 9. Samsung says the system will better warn about suspicious apps and potentially dangerous software. If a risky app is detected, the installation can be automatically blocked and the user will see an alert. Samsung can also recommend uninstalling certain apps via security updates.
Later this year, One UI 9 should become more widely available for new high-end Galaxy devices. In doing so, Samsung aims to integrate AI features even more strongly into the daily operation of smartphones.
The beta programme is tentatively starting in a limited number of countries, including Germany, South Korea, Poland, India, the UK and the US. Signing up can be done via the Samsung Members app.
