Samsung Galaxy S26 won’t be coming with One UI 8.1 and that’s a good thing

The Galaxy S26 series is still many months away, but that’s no reason not to make some educated guesses about some of the key specs. Samsung has been pretty predictable when it comes to the hardware configuration of its flagships, so it’s not that hard to pinpoint the exact specifications of the Galaxy S26.

What’s harder to guess is the software that’s supposed to run on Samsung’s next flagships. The fact that the South Korean giant had to delay the rollout of One UI 7 for several months raises the question of whether or not Samsung will be able to keep up with all the upcoming OS updates that Google is preparing.

Apparently, Samsung has found a way to keep its fans up to date with the latest software by simply skipping some of the minor iterations. According to a new report, Samsung is probably going to skip One UI 8.1 in favor of One UI 8.5 for Galaxy S26 series.

Evidence about the existence of One UI 8.5 in an incipient form has been found in a string from Samsung’s system components. The One UI 8.0 is mentioned too, but there’s no One 8.1, which suggests that Samsung plans to upgrade users directly to One UI 8.5 when the time comes.

Since the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 are expected to ship with One UI 8.0 on top, it makes sense that the next major update would be coming alongside the company’s new flagships, which is the Galaxy S26 series.

Although One UI 8.5 will still run on top of Android 16 because Google won’t release Android 17 until mid-2026, it’s supposed to bring some major improvements and a bunch of new features.

If we were to guess, most of these new features will probably revolve around AI, as many smartphone brands have been investing in this area quite a lot lately. Whether or not AI will stop being a high-profile buzzword in the coming months it remains to be seen, but right now it seems that everyone considers AI-related features mandatory.