Your Galaxy phone is getting a huge free upgrade | Tech News

There are many reasons why Samsung’s latest Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra are among the best phones you can buy right now, from the triple and quadruple camera options to the outstanding displays, premium builds and solid battery life, but one of the smartest upgrades these three phones have is their software.

Samsung introduced One UI 7 with the S25, and has since confirmed the new software, based on Android 15, will also ship on the recently announced mid-range Galaxy A36 and A56 handsets.

Features differ depending on the capabilities or price of the phones, but the S25 series boasts a whole host of artificial intelligence (AI) features including numerous writing tools, image creation and editing, summarisation smarts for text, webpages and audio recordings, new widgets that surface live information including sports scores.

You also get Google’s popular Circle to Search that brings Google search to anything that’s on your screen simply by circling it with your finger.

That’s great news if you have one of these new phones or are thinking of upgrading, but it can be frustrating if you have an older Samsung phone that is still running an older version of Android.

According to a new report from the folks at GSM Arena though, the wait is nearly over for thousands of Galaxy owners hoping for the big free software upgrade to One UI 7. An eagle-eyed reader sent the tech site an alleged slide from a ‘Samsung workshop’ that reveals the exact dates several Samsung phones are getting Android 15 beamed down to them.

As you might expect, 2024’s Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra will be first up, with One UI said to be rolling out on April 18, 2025, along with the mid-rangE S24 FE model. A week later on April 25 could then see the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra get the update on April 25.

The S22 phones are said to be getting One UI on May 16, with the S21 series following shortly afterwards on May 23. If accurate, that’s great to see, as the S21 came out back in 2021, showing Samsung is committed to keeping these still-solid phones as up to date as possible.

That said, this staggered rollout isn’t as fast as Samsung’s big rival Apple, which pushes out the latest version of iOS to several years’ worth of iPhones on the same day every year. Right now, phones dating back to 2018’s iPhone XR and XS can download iOS 18, and each update throughout the year usually goes out to all iPhones at the same time.

If you have a folding phone or a mid-range A-series Galaxy device it looks liek you’re also in luck. The Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 are set to get One UI 7 on April 18 alongside the S24 line, while the Flip 5 and Fold 5 will join the S23 and A54 in getting the update on April 25.

2022’s Flip 4 and Fold 4 are set for the free upgrade on May 16 along with the S22, A34, A53 and A33, while the Flip 3 and Fold 3 could get Android 15 on May 23 at the same time as the S21 line up.

That means if you have a Samsung phone from 2020 or earlier you are probably out of luck, and your phone will not get Android 15 or any of the new One UI 7 features.

Back then, Samsung’s software promise wasn’t as solid as it is today. The S24 series saw the firm introduce a promise of seven years of software updates that it maintains on all new Galaxy S and Galaxy Z series models.

Android phone rivals Google and Honor also offer seven years of Android and security updates for their latest and priciest mobiles. Samsung also announced this week that it is rolling out the official One UI 7 beta program in the UK for owners of the Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 from today, plus those with an S23 or A55 will be able to download it later this month.

Beta programs for software allow you to install upcoming software, in this case One UI 7, before its official release. Head to the Samsung Members app if you own one of these phones to see if you’re able to try it out.

In an announcement, Samsung also confirmed that the “Official update of One UI 7 will be available starting in April”, pointing to the leaked schedule of device updates being somewhat correct.