Samsung’s latest Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, as well as the high-end S25 Ultra, are some of the best Android phones you can buy. Aside from the excellent build, great performance and versatile cameras, a lot of that is down to the software.
These phones ship with One UI 7, which is the latest version of Samsung’s software built on top of Android 15. Compared to older versions of One UI, it introduces a lick of paint to proceedings, redesigning the app icons, notification shade, settings menu and the general look and feel of the phones.
In Express.co.uk’s reviews of the S25 series, we praised One UI 7 as one of the best bits of the phones. If you have an older Galaxy phone in your pocket and are miffed you don’t yet have the new software along with its big redesign then worry not, as Samsung has just confirmed the exact date it will start pushing out free software updates that will beam One UI 7 to previously released Samsung devices.
Starting on April 7, 2025, Samsung says it will start to roll out the One UI 7 software update to owners of the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, bringing the latest Android 15 flavour to 2024’s flagship Galaxy phones.
Unusually, Samsung has opted to wait to push Android 15 to older phones. In years gone by the Korean tech giant has often updated its latest devices with the latest Android version as soon as possible, which in recent years has been after the launch of the flagship Google Pixel phones around October time. That’s when Android traditionally moves on to the next new version, and other Android makers follow Google’s lead and update their top phones with the next version as soon as possible.
But this time around Samsung waited, only introducing Android 15 and One UI 7 when it announced the Galaxy S25 series in January. This update brought new features such as the Now Bar, a persistent widget that Samsung says, “provides real-time updates that matter most right on the lock screen.
“So during a morning run, users can easily check their progress and see what song is playing in your Galaxy Buds – all with a simple swipe, without unlocking their phone.”
It now appears this will come to the S24, S24 Plus, Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 from April 7. If you have one of these phones you should also expect some new AI tools that add to the Galaxy AI bits already on your phone, including AI Select, which can understand the context of what’s on your screen, and Writing Assist, which can help you summarise or format text in emails, documents and text messages.
There’s also Drawing Assist to help you create usable images from rough finger sketches and Audio Eraser, which can help remove unwanted background noise from your videos. Samsung said the update will also deeper integrate Google Gemini’s AI into your phone, as Samsung continues its close partnership with Google.
“One UI 7 will begin rolling out on April 7,” Samsung said, “expanding to more Galaxy smartphones and tablets in the following weeks, including the Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy S24 FE, the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy S23 FE, Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, the Galaxy Tab S10 series and the Galaxy Tab S9 series.”
We expect the aforementioned phones from 2024 to get the update first, with the other phones in the list following in the coming weeks and months.
Samsung offers some of the best software update promises in the mobile business if you buy one of its flagship phones. The S24 and S25 series boasts seven years of Android updates from release, meaning an S25 will get its last update in 2032.
