The Best New Features in Samsung One UI 7

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Each year, Samsung takes what Google has made with the annual Android update—the Android Open Source Project (or AOSP) to be precise—and builds a fresh version of One UI, its bespoke mobile operating system complete with all the extra Samsung bells and whistles. This year, we're getting One UI 7, which is based on Android 15.

One UI 7 comes preinstalled on the new Galaxy S25 phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but the rest of us are still waiting for it to roll out at the time of writing. Here's everything new that's coming with the software update, and when you can expect it to make its way to your Galaxy handset.

Best new features in One UI 7

Perhaps the most significant new features in One UI 7 are the Now Bar and Now Brief. The Now Bar is Samsung's answer to Live Activities on iOS: It shows pertinent information, including sports scores, map directions, workout stats, media playback controls, and stopwatch timers right on the lockscreen.

Then there's Now Brief, which gives you regularly updated summaries of information you need front and center as the day progresses. You might get alerts about upcoming meetings, for example, or the weather forecast for the rest of the day, or a summary of your stats from Samsung Health.

The Now Bar is new in One UI 7. Credit: Lifehacker

As you would expect, there's plenty of AI: The writing assist tools have been upgraded to make it more straightforward to rewrite, summarize, and compose text across any app, and using any Android keyboard. There are also AI-powered call transcriptions so you can get your spoken conversations on the phone written out for you as you talk, and enhanced AI search with natural queries in the Samsung Gallery app.

A more minor change comes with tweaks to the adaptive charging options. With One UI 7, you can set a limit for charging, beyond the standard 80% and 100% options. if you want charging to stop at 85% or 90% instead, that's now possible if you dive into the battery settings.

Sticking with device maintenance, One UI 7 follows Android 15 in making app archiving a system-level feature (previously it was inside the Play Store app). This means if you've got apps you don't use often, you can clear out most of the associated data to free up space, without doing a full reinstall—that saves you time if you need to get back to the app again (in terms of logging in and configuring it). One UI 7 will also recommend apps it thinks you should be archiving.

There's more control over adaptive charging. Credit: Lifehacker

One UI 7 also brings with it a pretty comprehensive visual overhaul. It looks cleaner and more modern than One UI 6, with icons, widgets, and menus that are a little more colorful and easier on the eye. The Quick Settings and notification panels have also been split up, so you need to swipe down from different sides of the screen to see them—though there is a setting to go back to the old combined panel if you prefer it.

Finally, Samsung has also given the default Camera app a bit of a refresh, with a more intuitive approach to the interface that makes it easier to get to the pro-level photography tools (while also keeping them well hidden away if you never need them). Like the other visual changes, it makes the software feel fresher and easier to navigate.

When is One UI 7 being released?

Samsung has recently confirmed that One UI 7 will be rolling out to at least some older phones sometime in April, though it hasn't provided a full list of which devices will get it (perhaps because it's not sure). The Samsung Galaxy S24 range will certainly get the update, as the software has been available in beta for those phones since December.

Since the launch of the beta program, it's been extended to cover the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6, with support for the Galaxy S23, Galaxy A55, and Galaxy Tab S10 tablet series coming soon. However, as these devices are all joining the beta at different times, it's not clear whether or not they'll get the finished One UI 7 by April.

The update could go back as far as the Galaxy S21. Credit: Samsung

Broadly speaking, Samsung tends to offer four years of Android upgrades to its flagship and mid-range devices, so handsets as far back as the Samsung Galaxy S21 (from 2021) may well be eligible—but that's just an estimated guess, not an official confirmation, and it's difficult to say how long it may take for the software to fully roll out.

There also remains some confusion over which handsets will get which One UI 7 features—again, it's not something Samsung has been very specific about. There has been speculation that features such as Now Brief may remain as Galaxy S25 exclusives, most likely to push sales of the newer devices.

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