Samsung's next major mobile software update, called One UI 7, will bring a new look to the company's smartphone interface, including changes to the home screen.
That's according to Sally Hyesoon Jeong, Samsung Electronics' executive vice president and head of the framework research and development team, who briefly spoke about the update during the tech giant's developer conference on Thursday. The update will be available in beta this year with the full version arriving in 2025 with Samsung's next flagship phone, presumably the Galaxy S25. Samsung similarly introduced Galaxy AI on the Galaxy S24 earlier this year, in January.
"We are exploring a brand-new [user interface] design," Jeong said on stage. "One UI 7 will bring a fresh new look to the entire interface."
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Jeong didn't say much about the update, nor did she show what it will look like. But she did discuss the company's overall vision for the new software, including that it was built to better understand what you're trying to do and "minimize complexity." She also added that Samsung enhanced motion and designed a new blur system as part of the redesign. She pointed to One UI 7's new home screen grid as an example.
"It's slicker and easier to use, giving you a neat home screen no matter which Galaxy devices you are using," she said.
Based on Jeong's remarks, Samsung's One UI 7 upgrade will align with some of the broader themes and changes that have emerged across phone software this year, such as more customization and the ability to work across apps more easily. For example, Apple's iOS 18 update lets iPhone owners rearrange app icons on the home screen more freely, while Google updated its Gemini assistant to answer questions about content on your phone's screen.
Samsung's One UI upgrades are also important because they dictate the experience across Samsung phones, which account for nearly 20% of smartphones used around the world, regardless of whether users buy the latest device. Samsung typically debuts software on its latest devices before rolling out new features to older devices, as it did last month with One UI 6.1.1.
One UI is Samsung's customized version of Android specifically for its devices, and it's usually built on the latest version of Google's Android operating system. Though One UI initially felt like a skinned version of Android, Samsung has used these updates to implement deeper changes in recent years, such as new camera layouts, passkey support, and the expansion of Galaxy AI to other devices.
Although Samsung hasn't said much about what to specifically expect from One UI 7, Thursday's tease falls in line with previous comments that Patrick Chomet, Samsung's executive vice president and head of customer experience, made to CNETabout the company's approach to software.
In a previous interview, he discussed how the company eventually wants to make various parts of the operating system smarter and more intuitive so that you don't have to think as much about what you need when picking up your phone.
"[You'd] never have to go to the settings, or you never have to look for the next action," he said. "You may not need to open [an] app."