Samsung just quietly handed Galaxy S26 users something the Z Fold 8 crowd has been sitting on for a while. The seventh One UI 9.0 beta update is here, and it brings three features that were already live on the Z Fold 8 lineup but were nowhere to be found on Samsung’s mainstream flagships. Better late than never, I guess.
As SamMobile reported, the update covers the Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra. The three additions are genuinely useful, and one of them is tied directly to Android 17. Here’s what’s included:
- Custom Cards in Now Brief — Built on Google’s Create My Widget feature from Android 17, this lets you pull specific data points from apps like Samsung Health, Weather, and YouTube and display them in a widget-style layout inside Now Brief. It’s a smart way to personalize your at-a-glance info without cluttering your home screen.
- My FanCam — Open any video, tap a person, and your phone’s on-device AI will track and crop the frame around them automatically. You find it in the stock Gallery app by hitting the Galaxy AI icon on any video. It sounds gimmicky at first, but for sports clips or concert footage, it’s actually kind of great.
- Dual search bars — You can now show both the Finder bar and the Google Search bar on your home screen at the same time, sitting just above the favorites dock. The Finder bar is slightly narrower. Simple, but people who live in their phone’s search functions will appreciate it.
So why does this matter beyond just a beta update? It shows how Samsung is managing feature rollouts across its lineup. The Z Fold 8 got these tools first, probably to justify its premium price, but Samsung clearly intends for the full S26 family to catch up before the stable One UI 9.0 release. That’s actually a decent strategy. Give power users on the foldables a head start, then bring the good stuff to everyone else.
The bigger picture here is that Galaxy AI is no longer just a marketing badge. Features like My FanCam and Now Brief customization show Samsung is building real, daily-use tools on top of on-device AI rather than just flashy demos. That’s progress worth paying attention to. Once the stable One UI 9.0 update rolls out, other compatible Galaxy devices should get these features too.