What you need to know
- A recent discovery suggests that Samsung has started testing its One UI 7 software skin atop Google's Android 15.
- It seems Samsung has started testing the upcoming software on the Galaxy S24 Ultra in Europe.
- Google's latest Android 15 Beta 1.2 continued to solve crushing problems its enrolled testers have faced, though there are more under the hood that need fixing.
It seems that Samsung is beginning to put together the pieces behind its upcoming One UI 7 software, based on Google's Android 15.
According to SamMobile, Samsung may have started internally testing One UI 7 as a new firmware build, version S928BXXU2BXE2, was spotted on its servers. The company has allegedly paired this new version with the Galaxy S24 Ultra in Europe. It was stated that what's most important with the build is the apparent swap at the end from "A..." to "B..."
Samsung's past suggests that this single character change typically indicates the beginning of a new major OS. We'll have to wait and see.
Other phones, such as the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus, have yet to begin testing the supposed One UI 7 software. It should start sometime soon, as the publication notes Samsung usually begins development shortly after Google's first beta for the next Android software.
Similarly, a beta program for the upcoming Android 15-based software should start at some point as we're coming up on the summer months.
One UI 7 murmurings have started ramping up as a Samsung Good Lock developer spilled that the sideways app drawer could disappear. This update could lessen its reliance on the Home Up module which, currently, displays all of a user's apps on pages that scroll horizontally.
More specifically, the representative stated the team is looking into implementing a "vertical list function" that the OS can utilize without relying on Good Lock.
Android 15's development is continuing as expected with Google recently rolling out Beta 1.2 toward the end of April. This smaller, iterative update was to build on the Beta 1.1 problems the company aimed to fix. App freezing, odd battery drain issues, crashes, and more were on the docket. While it seems as though Google has made its current test build for Android 15 more stable, there are still problems enrolled users have reported that haven't been solved.
We've crossed into May, which means we should be moving into Android 15 Beta 2 at any point now. According to Google's timeline, it plans to reach "Platform Stability" by June before rolling out its stable Android 15 software anywhere from August and beyond.