Samsung's Android 17 update turns wide videos into tracking shots on the phone itself, flattens curved book scans and frees the Quick Panel sliders.
Samsung's One UI 9, the first Galaxy software based on Android 17, is rolling out more widely, now reaching the Galaxy S23, Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 and midrange A-series phones as well as recent flagships.
The standout is My FanCam, which turns a wide video into a close-up that follows one person, processed entirely on the phone. The document scanner now flattens curved book pages and folded corners, and the Quick Panel's volume and brightness sliders can stand on their own without attached buttons.
For most Galaxy owners it is a worthwhile update with practical changes you'll use every day.
The best feature in Samsung’s One UI 9 might be the one that saves you an afternoon of video editing. My FanCam takes a wide video you already shot, lets you tap on one person, and turns it into a close-up that follows them across the frame, all on your phone, even in airplane mode.
That is a good sign for anyone tired of AI features that look great in ads and never get used. One UI 9 is Samsung’s first Galaxy software built on Android 17, and it is now spreading from the newest flagships to older phones like the Galaxy S23 and Z Fold 5. Many of its changes are small, practical fixes that you will notice every day.
One UI 9 is the latest version of Samsung’s software for Galaxy phones and tablets. It arrived with Samsung’s new foldables in August and is now rolling out widely. Compared with One UI 8.5, the main additions are:
Here are the features most worth trying first.
My FanCam picks one person out of a wide video and reframes the whole clip around them. Picture a video of a band on stage: when you open it, each member is highlighted, and if you pick the guitarist, the video crops around him and follows him.
It is ideal for your kid’s soccer game, a school concert or dance clips for social media. You can film wide and crop to a vertical frame afterward instead of trying to keep someone in shot while recording. You don’t need a special camera mode. Open any video in Samsung Gallery, tap the Galaxy AI button (the sparkle icon), and choose My FanCam.
Apps like CapCut have offered similar tracking for years, and doing it by hand in a desktop editor can take hours. The big plus here is privacy: processing happens on the phone, with nothing sent to the cloud. You do need to be signed in to a Samsung account. My FanCam has been confirmed on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and S25 Ultra, and the Galaxy S24 series is the oldest line seen with it in beta.
Samsung’s camera app has had a built-in document scanner for years, but it struggled with anything that wasn’t flat. Scan a book page and you would get a curved, warped image. Scan a page with a folded corner and the crease would show up as a hard line.
In One UI 9, the scanner fixes both automatically. Scan two facing pages of a book and the result looks like a flat digital copy rather than a photo of an open book. For students, anyone digitizing receipts and contracts, or people saving recipes from cookbooks, this is one of the most useful changes in the update.
Samsung split quick settings and notifications into two separate panels with One UI 7, and One UI 8 and 8.5 let you move and resize the tiles in the Quick Panel. One UI 9 goes further.
The volume slider used to have a mute shortcut stuck to one end, and the brightness slider came with a dark mode button attached. Now you can remove those buttons so each slider stands alone, and change slider sizes. Sliders also lose the bulky pads around them, and the borders around tiles are gone, which gives the panel a cleaner look. A smaller touch: the waveform on the music player’s progress bar now matches the colors of the current album art.
One UI 9 is rolling out to recent Galaxy flagships first, and older and midrange phones are now joining. Stable builds have reached the Galaxy S23 series in Europe, starting with phones enrolled in the beta program. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 got it about a week after Samsung’s home market of South Korea. The midrange Galaxy A56 is getting it internationally too, after a first release in South Korea.
There is a catch for midrange phones. Samsung has not confirmed that every AI feature will reach them. The Galaxy A56’s release notes cover the Quick Panel changes, Warranty and care, and productivity upgrades, but Privacy Alerts, which uses on-device AI to flag suspicious background permission use, is listed only for supported Galaxy S, Z and Tab devices. My FanCam has not been confirmed for the A56 either.
The Galaxy S23 is also likely at the end of the line. Samsung promised it four major Android upgrades, so One UI 9 is expected to be its last.
For most people, One UI 9 is worth installing as soon as it appears. You get Android 17, a newer security patch and practical changes you will use daily. Not every new feature lands: the Now Nudge feature, which is meant to surface helpful information at the right moment, has shown little useful in testing so far.
To check for the update, open Settings, tap Software update, then Download and install. Use Wi-Fi, charge your phone first and make sure you have enough free storage. If nothing shows up, wait for your region or carrier rather than installing firmware meant for another model.
One UI 9 is based on Android 17. It is the first version of Samsung’s software built on it.
No. It runs on the phone and works in airplane mode, but you must be signed in to a Samsung account.
Yes. The stable update is rolling out now, starting in Europe, and it is expected to be the S23’s final major upgrade.
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