One UI 7: The top 7 coolest new features launching with the Galaxy S25 and coming to the S24 soon
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The highly anticipated Galaxy S25 family of ultra-high-end smartphones is finally here, looking... exactly as anticipated and as thoroughly leaked over the last couple of weeks, and with it, a new One UI version is also out (in stable form) following a public beta debut back in early December.
As always, a lot of the beta features have found their way to the software package launching with Samsung's latest super-premium handsets out of the box, while a few others are likely to be added a little later, and a final group of One UI 7 tweaks and enhancements are here today with little to no advance notice. Then you've got the changes Samsung has yet to announce, which we'll probably have more details on in the next few days.
Without further ado, I give you the seven (yes, the number is intentional) most exciting new One UI 7 features, as confirmed and (in some cases, minimally) detailed by Samsung today:
Now Bar
Are you tired of constantly unlocking your phone to start your day how you always do or find your most used apps? Now you can save... quite a bit of time when you think about it by getting AI-powered suggestions via Samsung's brand-new Now Bar.
This is just small and discreet enough not to be too distracting, but also smart enough to transform your traditional lock screen experience, especially in the future, when Samsung plans to add even more "intelligent experiences" and features to it. Of course, Now Bar (and a broader Now Brief feature) are just a small part of Samsung's greater Galaxy AI vision detailed in this entirely separate new PhoneArena article.
Simplified home screen
Simpler is often better when it comes to your home screen activities in this day and age, and with redesigned widgets aiming to offer more information at a glance, as well as a revamped lock screen with new clock styles and animations, Samsung promises to strike a perfect balance between simplicity and usability with One UI 7. I don't know about you, but I'm excited.
Simple but rich in features, the One UI 7 Home Screen experience is enough to make a lot of Galaxy fans excited for this update. | Image Credit -- Samsung
Big notifications and quick settings changes
If you ever wished Samsung's take on Android would separate your phone's notifications from its quick toggles, your wish has now become a (commercial) reality. That's probably going to make it a lot harder to miss a notification from now on, and switching between them and Samsung's completely overhauled quick panel with bigger buttons than ever is also very simple and intuitive.
On top of everything, live notifications are also getting a big boost and expansion to apps like Samsung Health, Interpreter, voice recorder, Maps, and Bixby, not to mention alarms and timers.
Writing Assist, Drawing Assist, and Browsing Assist enhancements
How many types of activities can Samsung's software assist you with? How about all of them? That's a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but with the help of AI (naturally), your Galaxy S25 series phone will automatically format your notes and summarize your written content (hey, that could be useful for me too), deliver various combinations of sketches, texts, and image prompts to bring your "ideas to life", and read outlines of articles from across the web out loud if you so choose.
It's not entirely clear just how useful and powerful these features will be on older Galaxy devices set to receive the One UI 7 update down the line, though, so you should probably wait before getting too excited on that front.
Redesigned camera interface
If you're a pro-level photographer or video recorder, you'll be delighted to know that One UI 7 promises "more intuitive control over advanced" camera settings. Your camera buttons, controls, and modes have officially been reorganized to make it easier to produce the best possible snapshots with the highest level of detail in any and all conditions.
Enhanced security
With AI becoming such a big part of the One UI experience, a new, "fortified" layer of safety was definitely needed to keep up with all the unique challenges of a new mobile tech era. To that end, Samsung is updating the little-known but very handy Auto Blocker feature, adding new Maximum Restrictions settings, bumping up Theft Protection, and rolling out a new Knox Matrix dashboard to keep an eye on the overall security of your entire "connected device ecosystem."
Galaxy Avatar
Remember the AR Emoji tool Samsung introduced all the way back in early 2018 (when One UI wasn't even a thing yet)? Believe it or not, that's making a comeback in 2025 under a new name: Galaxy Avatar.
That's... not exactly trendier branding (even though James Cameron is preparing another Avatar movie), and the feature itself doesn't look especially modern, preserving the core functionality of its forerunner and thus rivaling Apple's Genmoji tool (which is somehow still a thing as well) to create personalized avatars and stickers for users who are into that sort of thing in the year of our lord 2025.
What devices will receive One UI 7 and when?
Unfortunately, that's a question Samsung is not ready to answer just yet, but I'd expect the Galaxy S24 family to follow the S25 trio's suit by the end of this quarter. The same may (or may not) prove true for the company's latest foldable phones, and for the time being, that's all I'm ready to speculate on this matter.
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