Samsung may delay Android 15 rollout to January 2025

Samsung may lag behind its rivals in rolling out Android 15 as it has steered away from the annual Android upgrade cycle this year. The South Korean company has managed to bring its Android version releases to around the same schedule as other smartphone brands over the past few years. However, Samsung’s Android 15-based One UI update will not begin until 2025. It said the One UI 7 will be released next year with the next Galaxy S series.

“The official version of One UI 7 with all of the game-changing AI features will be released next year with the next Galaxy S series,” said Samsung at the SDC 2024. Ahead of the commercial release of its mobile platform, Samsung seeds trial (beta) versions to developers and interested users for feedback. Thus, the first beta was originally scheduled to be available in August, but Samsung delayed the rollout “indefinitely” due to several unspecified reasons.

The Android 15 release is anyway moving ahead with a strange rollout cycle. Case in point: the new Pixel 9 phones still run Android 14 compared to previous Pixel phones that came out with the latest Android version. Google also expedited the launch of Pixel phones to August from October this year but has apparently stuck to the original schedule for the Android 15 release. The Pixel phones are the first to get the new stock Android version, followed by the releases of custom skins from OEMs, such as Samsung. That is because Google makes AOSP of the new Android version available after its new Pixel devices have received the updates.

However, the delay in the rollout of Samsung’s Android 15-based custom skin may be largely due to the implementation of new generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) features. The company could also have plans to align the launch of its AI-loaded mobile OS with the debut of the Galaxy S25 series. In that case, the One UI 7 may debut as early as mid-late January. The Galaxy S24 series came out after half the January had passed earlier this year.