Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra is months away and expected early next year, but we are hearing acute details on the software it will run or miss out on. We now have early information related to One UI 8 and what versions of it will be supported on the Galaxy S26. It is being reported that One UI 8.1 will not be available on the S26 Ultra and other models, and there is a perfectly good reason for it.
Samsung will skip the One UI 8.1 update for the Galaxy S26 and jump straight to One UI 8.5 based on Android 16
Samsung took its sweet time rolling out the One UI 7 update, and while it was curating bugs, the timeline was disturbed. This raises the question of whether the company will be able to deliver the One UI 8 updates on time for the Galaxy S26 lineup. As it turns out, the South Korean tech giant has potentially decided to skip some of the minor updates and go straight to the major ones, allowing the company to keep up with its long-standing software release timeframe.
A new report sheds light on Samsung's decision to skip the One UI 8.1 update in favor of One UI 8.5 for the entire Galaxy S26 lineup, including the Ultra model. The evidence of this happening has been found in the company's system components, which show a string of code mentioning the above-mentioned updates. You can see that the string mentions One UI 8.0 and One UI 8.5, but there is no One UI 8.1, which is an indication that the company will skip the update. The .5 update will be a major one with significant feature upgrades and major visual changes, according to the source, which will breathe fresh life into the company's flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra and its slightly less capable siblings.
If you are unfamiliar with the update, One UI 8 is expected to ship with the launch of the company's Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 handsets later this year. Moreover, Samsung's update will be built on top of Google's Android 16 update, which will be announced next month at its I/O event. While the public release will happen sometime in June, Samsung is expected to have One UI 8 ready beforehand and release it with its highly anticipated foldable devices.
One UI 8 will be made available to the Galaxy S26 lineup once they are released, possibly running One UI 8.5 instead of One UI 8.1. We expect major AI utilities and front-facing additions in Samsung's One UI 8 update, as the company has to give the iPhone 17 Pro models a tough time. Google and Samsung could also offer exclusive features for the Galaxy-branded smartphones, so be sure to stick around for in-depth analysis of the updates. What are your expectations from Samsung's One UI 8 update for the Galaxy S26 lineup?
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
