Updated

Updated · Android Police · Sep 26

Samsung Starts One UI 9 US Rollout to Galaxy S26 Ultra, 3 Months After Android 17 Debut

Updated

Updated · Android Police · Sep 26

Samsung Starts One UI 9 US Rollout to Galaxy S26 Ultra, 3 Months After Android 17 Debut

Q: Why is Samsung permanently cutting off the Galaxy S22 series from One UI 9's massive new AI upgrades?

Samsung is cutting off the Galaxy S22 series from One UI 9 because those phones have reached the end of Samsung’s promised major-OS support window, not because the hardware suddenly cannot run the new AI features. The Galaxy S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra launched in 2022 under Samsung’s older policy of four major Android upgrades and five years of security updates. By Samsung’s own timetable, their final major platform upgrade was One UI 8 on Android 16. One UI 9, based on Android 17, would be a fifth major OS update, which falls outside that commitment. Samsung has applied the same rule to the Galaxy S21 FE. That is the main reason the S22 misses One UI 9’s new AI additions such as Now Nudge, My FanCam, Motion Assist and expanded privacy tools. Samsung’s newer long-support era began later: devices like the Galaxy S24 and newer flagships moved to a seven-year update promise, while the S22 remained on the older four-year track. For S22 owners, the cutoff is significant but not immediate end-of-life. The phones should still receive security patches for a period, with reports pointing to support continuing into early 2027, likely on a quarterly schedule. That means the devices remain usable and protected against many newly found vulnerabilities, but they will no longer receive Samsung’s latest Android version, One UI redesigns, or the newest Galaxy AI features delivered through One UI 9.

Q: What hidden on-device AI tools in One UI 9 are secretly monitoring your background app permissions?

The One UI 9 feature doing this is **Privacy Alerts**. Samsung says it uses **on-device AI** to detect potentially unnecessary or unusual attempts by apps to access sensitive permissions in the background, including the camera, microphone and other permissions. It is not “secretly” monitoring users in the ordinary sense. Based on Samsung’s description, the AI is designed to **analyze permission activity locally on the phone** and warn the user when background access looks suspicious or unnecessary. Those warnings can appear in **Now Brief**, alongside broader **Security Brief** notices about malware, unknown-source apps and excessive permissions. Samsung’s wording is that Privacy Alerts identify “potential privacy risks,” not proven abuse. In practice, that means the tool is meant to flag behavior for review rather than declare an app malicious. Users should treat an alert as a prompt to check that app’s permission settings and background behavior. On supported Galaxy devices, this gives users a more proactive privacy check than manually digging through settings. If an alert appears, the practical response is to open the app’s permissions, revoke anything unnecessary, or uninstall the app if the behavior seems unjustified.

3 articles · Updated · Android Police · Sep 26

September 23 marked the US start of Samsung’s One UI 9 rollout, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra on T-Mobile first in line after the update reached South Korea on September 16.
About 4GB in size, the Android 17-based update arrives in waves and adds AI-heavy features including My FanCam, Now Nudge and Privacy Alerts, alongside search, quick-settings and repair-booking tweaks.
By the end of September, Samsung says the Galaxy S25 series plus the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 should get One UI 9, though the company has already pushed back earlier rollout targets.
Later, likely toward year-end, the update is expected for the S24 and S23 families, older foldables, many A-series phones and several tablets, while the Galaxy S22 and S21 FE will remain on One UI 8.