One UI 9 Finally Delivers the Feature Samsung Fans Have Begged for for Years

Samsung has officially answered millions of user requests with the global release of the Android 17-based One UI 9 software update. For nearly a decade, Galaxy phone owners have had to deal with a specific, frustrating software limitation that rival Android manufacturers solved years ago. Now, with Samsung just dropping the Android 17 One UI 9 update, that limitation is officially history.

Samsung has baked a native, system-wide vertical app drawer directly into the stock One UI Home launcher. Users no longer need to swipe endlessly through horizontal pages of icons or download separate customization utilities just to find an app. Alongside this headline change, Samsung has also introduced true seamless background updates across its supported lineup, permanently changing how you update and use your phone.

If you carry a Samsung device in your pocket, this software cycle is easily one of the most practical, user-focused releases the company has ever built.

The Big Fix: A Native Vertical App Drawer Arrives

For as long as most people can remember, Samsung phones forced everyone to organize apps across horizontal pages. You swiped up from the bottom of the screen, and you had to swipe left and right across multiple panels to find what you wanted.

Almost every other major phone brand on the planet—including Google Pixel, Motorola, and OnePlus—has used a vertical scrolling list for years. A vertical list is natural because your thumb scrolls vertically down the glass. Swiping horizontally always felt awkward on tall, narrow modern phone screens.

Power users who wanted a vertical layout had to install Samsung’s Good Lock platform and configure the Home Up module. Even then, the experience was never perfect. Good Lock was not available in every region, updates often broke the layout, and it caused occasional stuttering on budget and mid-range devices.

In One UI 9, the vertical app drawer is an official, built-in option.

How to Switch to the Vertical App Drawer

Activating the new layout takes only three quick taps:

1. Long-press any empty space on your home screen.
2. Tap the Settings gear icon in the bottom right corner.
3. Select “App Screen Grid and Layout” and toggle “Vertical Scrolling” on.

Once enabled, your apps arrange themselves in an alphabetized vertical list. A sleek alphabetical scrub bar appears on the right edge of the screen, allowing you to jump straight to any letter instantly. The scrolling animation is locked at a full 120Hz refresh rate, meaning you get zero lag even if you have hundreds of apps installed.

Seamless Background Updates: No More Reboot Hostages

While the vertical app drawer gets the visual spotlight, Samsung quietly rolled out a technical upgrade that solves another major complaint: agonizingly long update installation screens.

Under the old system, installing a monthly security patch or a major OS upgrade turned your phone into a brick for 10 to 20 minutes. The phone would shut down, reboot into a blue or black recovery screen with a spinning gear, and slowly process files while you stared at a percentage counter. If an urgent call came in, you had no way to answer it.

Samsung has now adopted the Android A/B seamless partition update architecture across its modern portfolio, as detailed in the official Android Developers documentation.

With seamless updates, your phone downloads and installs the entire software package quietly in the background on an inactive system partition while you keep chatting, watching videos, or browsing. Once the background process completes, you simply restart your device. The reboot takes less than 60 seconds because the new software is already compiled and waiting.

This seamless update workflow is now active across supported devices, following recent rollouts seen when Samsung dropped the massive One UI 9 update for Galaxy S26.

Real Battery Health Metrics and Cycle Tracking

For years, checking the battery condition on a Galaxy phone felt like guessing. You opened the Samsung Members app, ran a diagnostic check, and the system gave you a vague answer like “Life: Good.” It never told you the real capacity or how worn out the battery cells actually were.

One UI 9 changes that by introducing detailed, transparent battery health statistics right inside the main Settings app.

What You Can Now See

Under the “Battery” menu in Settings, a new sub-menu called “Battery Health” displays three critical numbers:

• Maximum Capacity Percentage: Shows how much charge your battery can hold compared to when the device was brand new.
• Battery Cycle Count: Tracks the exact number of complete charge and discharge cycles the battery has gone through.
• Manufacture and First Use Date: Confirms when the physical cell was built and when it was first turned on.

This transparency makes it much easier to decide when your phone actually needs a hardware replacement. It also pairs directly with tools like Samsung battery protection to extend battery lifespan, which caps your daily charge at 80% or 85% to slow down cell aging.

Fluid Animations and the Decoupled Touch Engine

One consistent criticism of Samsung software compared to competitors has been animation consistency. While Galaxy hardware is among the most powerful on the market, previous One UI versions occasionally suffered from micro-stutters when closing apps rapidly or swiping between tasks.

Samsung rewrote the animation engine in One UI 9 to decouple touch response from background system processing.

Why It Feels Faster

In previous iterations, if an app was loading heavy data in the background, your swipe gesture to return to the home screen might pause for a fraction of a second. In One UI 9, your gesture inputs take absolute priority.

When you flick upward to go home, the app window shrinks instantly, following the exact physics and velocity of your thumb. The transition curves adapt dynamically. If you change your mind mid-swipe and redirect the window toward the recent apps carousel, the interface flows effortlessly without dropping frames.

For anyone who values swift, responsive hardware, these animation improvements prove why Samsung phones are better than iPhones for power users.

A Cleaner Quick Settings and Notification Center

The Quick Panel on Samsung phones has gone through several redesigns, but One UI 9 brings the most logical layout yet.

Samsung separated the quick toggle switches and the incoming notification shade into two distinct, highly customizable zones. Swiping down from the top right edge of the screen reveals your complete control center, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, display brightness, and sound profiles. Swiping down from the center or top left edge brings up your notifications.

Key Visual Upgrades

• Modular Toggle Blocks: You can resize individual toggle tiles. If you switch Wi-Fi networks often, you can expand the Wi-Fi tile into a larger rectangular widget that lets you select access points without opening the full Settings app.
• Integrated Media Player: The media playback card now features live audio waveform visualization and responsive album art that tints the player background.
• Smart Notification Grouping: Notifications from the same app or chat thread bundle together into slim cards. Swiping across a card reveals quick reply suggestions generated privately on your device.

The entire panel features a subtle frosted glass blur that keeps your wallpaper visible in the background, making the UI look polished and modern.

Practical AI Tools That Don’t Get in the Way

Artificial intelligence features have flooded smartphones lately, but many of them feel like gimmicks people test once and never touch again. One UI 9 focuses on practical utilities that solve daily headaches.

Smart Call Screening and Live Translation

Samsung expanded its on-device call screening tools. When an unknown phone number rings, you can tap “Screen Call.” An automated assistant answers the caller, asks who is calling and why, and prints their spoken response on your screen in real time. You can read the text and decide whether to pick up, hang up, or send a quick pre-typed response.

Live translation now works offline across 24 languages. Whether you are traveling abroad or talking with international clients, your phone translates voice calls directly through the earpiece without uploading your conversation to cloud servers.

Instant Audio Capture During Screen Recording

Content creators and everyday users also get improved multimedia tools. You can now combine screen capture with direct internal sound isolation, making it simple to master how to screen record with internal audio on Samsung without picking up unwanted background room noise or accidental microphone thumps.

Which Samsung Devices Are Eligible for One UI 9?

Samsung has committed to providing up to seven years of major operating system upgrades for its premium devices, giving Galaxy products some of the best software longevity in the tech industry.

As announced on the official Samsung Newsroom, the One UI 9 rollout is phased over several months. Flagship phones receive the update first, followed by foldables, tablets, and mid-range devices.

Galaxy S Series

• Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra
• Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra
• Galaxy S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra
• Galaxy S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra
• Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy S23 FE

To get the full picture of hardware capabilities on the newest flagship, you can explore what is the battery life and charging speed of Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Galaxy Z Fold and Flip Series

• Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7
• Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6
• Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5

Galaxy A and Tab Series

• Galaxy A57, A56, and A55
• Galaxy A36 and A35
• Galaxy Tab S11 and Tab S10 series

Testing is expanding rapidly across regions, with news confirming that Samsung expands One UI 9 testing to more Galaxy devices and that mid-range stars are joining in, as seen when Samsung Galaxy A57 is getting One UI 9 beta very soon.

Devices That Will Not Receive One UI 9

Software support lifecycles mean older devices eventually reach their final official build. If your device launched before 2022, it will likely stay on its current firmware while continuing to receive critical security patches.

Phones that miss out on One UI 9 include:

• Galaxy S20 series and older
• Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra
• Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra
• Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3
• Galaxy A52, A72, and older A-series phones

For a complete rundown of hardware cut-offs and support timelines, check the full breakdown of Samsung devices that won’t receive One UI 9.0 Android 17 update.

How to Prepare Your Phone Before Installing One UI 9

Upgrading to a major Android platform update is generally safe, but taking a few preventive steps ensures you do not lose important files or run into battery drain bugs.

1. Create a Full Backup

Never install an operating system upgrade without backing up your personal photos, contacts, and messages. You can back up your phone directly to Samsung Cloud, Google Drive, or an external hard drive using Samsung Smart Switch on a computer.

2. Free Up Internal Storage

One UI 9 requires roughly 12GB to 15GB of free storage space to download, unpack, and install its system files smoothly. Go to Settings > Device Care > Storage, and delete large unused videos, clear temporary cache files, or move bulky documents to cloud storage.

3. Update Your Installed Apps

Before updating your operating system, open the Google Play Store and the Samsung Galaxy Store. Check for updates and install all available app patches. Running outdated third-party apps on a brand-new Android version is the leading cause of random app crashes and phone overheating after an update.

To make sure your transition is completely smooth, review the guide on Samsung rolls out One UI 9 key things users must know before launch date.

Troubleshooting Common Post-Update Issues

If your phone feels warm or loses battery faster during the first 48 hours after installing One UI 9, there is no need to panic. The Android operating system runs intensive background optimization tasks right after a major upgrade, rebuilding app caches and indexing your storage files.

Here are simple steps to fix standard post-update hiccups:

• Wipe Cache Partition: Turn off your phone. Connect it to a computer via a USB-C cable. Press and hold the Volume Up button and Power button together until the Samsung recovery menu appears. Use the volume keys to navigate to “Wipe Cache Partition,” confirm with the power button, and restart. This deletes temporary upgrade files without touching your photos or messages.
• Reset App Preferences: If notifications stop showing up or background permissions act erratic, go to Settings > Apps, tap the three dots in the top right corner, and select “Reset App Preferences.”
• Run Galaxy App Booster: Download the Good Guardians suite from the Galaxy Store and run the Galaxy App Booster module. This compiles app binaries specifically for your processor, improving general launch speeds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the vertical app drawer erase my folder arrangements?

No. When you switch between the horizontal and vertical layouts in One UI 9, your app folders remain intact. In the vertical view, your created folders appear pinned at the very top of the list for quick access, followed by your alphabetized individual apps.

Will One UI 9 slow down older Galaxy phones?

No. One UI 9 is lighter on system resources than One UI 7 and One UI 8. Because Samsung decoupled the animation pipeline and reduced background memory overhead, older supported models like the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S24 often feel noticeably more responsive after the update.

Can I revert to the horizontal app pages if I prefer them?

Yes. Samsung did not delete the horizontal layout. The horizontal pages remain an option in home screen settings. If you prefer swiping sideways, you can leave the setting on default and never look back.

How do I check if One UI 9 is available on my phone?

Go to your phone’s Settings menu, scroll down to the bottom, and tap “Software Update.” Tap “Download and Install.” If the update is ready for your carrier and country, the download prompt will appear on your screen.

Does One UI 9 support third-party icon packs on the stock launcher?

Yes. You can now apply standard third-party icon packs downloaded from the Google Play Store directly through the native Theme settings without needing extra customization software.

Is seamless updating available on every Samsung phone getting One UI 9?

Seamless updates require hardware-level partition support. Newer devices, starting with the Galaxy S25, S26, and newer Galaxy A-series models, support seamless background updates natively. Older hardware lacking dual system partitions will still install the update via the traditional reboot method.

Samsung listened directly to its community with One UI 9. By delivering the native vertical app drawer, seamless background updates, and open battery health tracking, the company removed the longest-standing annoyances on its platform. The update turns an already powerful hardware ecosystem into a cleaner, more enjoyable daily experience.