Samsung Galaxy S26 Gets Galaxy Z Fold8 Features With Latest One UI 9 Beta Update

One UI 9 beta seven update is now available for Samsung’s Galaxy S26 family with Galaxy Z Fold8 inspired updates like My FanCam, custom cards on the Now Brief screen, and a Google search bar option.

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Samsung is still working to improve One UI 9 software based on Android 17 before the release of the final version. The new seventh One UI 9 beta software adds several interesting features to Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26 Plus, and Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphones. The update includes features that were mentioned in the latest foldable devices from Samsung, like Galaxy Z Fold8.

This software update is focused on making AI features more useful for real life use cases and giving users more freedom to choose what information appears on the home screen and Now Brief. The My FanCam feature also becomes available, thanks to the use of on-device AI to detect a chosen person in the video.

As SamMobile reports, the new One UI 9 Beta 7 update is released now for Samsung Galaxy S26 series. This update is delivered with firmware version S948BXXU4ZZHK / S948BOXM4ZZHK / S948BXXU4BZHK and has the size of about 1.28 GB.

One UI 9 beta brings Custom Cards to Now Brief

Custom Cards for Now Brief is among the notable features of the latest One UI 9 beta. Samsung introduced the Now Brief feature in One UI 7 as a custom information hub where users can find important updates and information in one place throughout the day.

With Custom Cards, Samsung has taken this idea a step further by providing users with the ability to create custom sections within the Now Brief hub. The feature is able to pull certain data points from supported applications including Samsung Health, Weather, and YouTube, offering more customisable views of information that is most important to them.

The new feature utilises the Create My Widget feature from Google, which allows users to create custom widgets depending on their individual needs. Users will not depend on Samsung-defined information cards only but will have an opportunity to create custom information cards of their own.

Now Brief may become much more useful for those who need to have instant access to certain information points throughout the day without opening several applications.

Galaxy S26 gets the Galaxy Z Fold8’s My FanCam feature

The new One UI 9 beta update also comes with My FanCam in the Galaxy S26 lineup. This feature has been among the key features added in the Galaxy Z Fold8 and also got added to the Galaxy S26 FE.

This feature comes handy when a user captures a video that contains many people but wishes to keep one individual in the center of attention. Opening the video, the user then selects one of the individuals in the video. On-device AI of the smartphone keeps following that individual automatically through the entire video.

This results in the tracking and crop adjustment of the video that keeps the individual being followed at the center. This allows users not to edit their videos manually or change the frame after capturing the video.

This feature can help content creators, vloggers, or individuals who capture videos during their travelings. In order not to waste time cropping videos, My FanCam makes the job much easier.

The Samsung has incorporated this feature within its native Gallery application. Users just have to open the video file and press on the Galaxy AI button.

Google search bar finally gets a place above the dock

The other modification in One UI 9 beta is the presence of a permanent Google search bar above the dock in the Galaxy S26 series. This enables the users to have another way of accessing the Google Search application directly from the home screen.

Image credits: @AnxiousHolly on X

As mentioned above, the Samsung company allows the users to turn off this feature if they find the home screen too crowded because of this search bar. The most interesting thing is that now it is possible to use both the new Google search bar and Samsung Finder pill at the same time.

This modification may be useful for the Galaxy users who prefer using the Google Search application when looking for something on the web and use Samsung Finder to find the applications, settings, files and other content available on the device.

One UI 9 beta update is nearly 1.3GB

he latest One UI 9 beta carries firmware version S948BXXU4ZZHK / S948BOXM4ZZHK / S948BXXU4BZHK and weighs approximately 1,277.99MB. Alongside the new features, the update also includes the August 2026 security patch.

It doesn't come as a surprise either because of the many new additions being rolled out. Users of the Galaxy S26 who were registered under Samsung's One UI 9 beta program can thus make sure that they have enough free storage and a reliable Wi-Fi connection prior to installing the update.

As for Samsung, the company hasn't announced the arrival date of the One UI 9 update for the Galaxy S26 line-up. Nonetheless, since the beta program is already ongoing for a few months now and the company has released its seventh beta version, it could mean that the stable version isn't too far off.

One UI 9 beta could soon arrive on Galaxy S25 and Galaxy Z series

One more reason that Samsung could release its One UI 9 beta programme for other devices soon is that it will not be restricted to only the Galaxy S26 range of smartphones but can possibly be expanded to cover the Galaxy S25 lineup as well as its newest foldable phones, like Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7.

With Samsung taking this route, users of its older range of flagship models can have a preview of Android 17 and One UI 9 features. For Galaxy S26 users, however, the current beta release from Samsung again offers a glimpse into what the company is preparing to roll out in the stable version of its operating system.

From the Custom Cards in Now Brief and My FanCam to the integration of AI in Samsung software, users can see that the company is focusing on incorporating artificial intelligence. From the inclusion of Google search bar, however, users can also have more freedom in how they want to operate their phones. As the release date seems to be approaching, Samsung could introduce some more features in future beta releases.