Samsung just released the first One UI 9 beta for the Galaxy S24 series, and the timing here is the actual story. The S24, S24+, and S24 Ultra started receiving Android 17-based builds in the US and India on September 2, barely 24 hours after Samsung had announced a completely different beta expansion that didn’t include these phones at all.
That’s the part worth sitting with for a second. On September 1, Samsung publicly expanded One UI 9 beta testing to its 2025 lineup, the Galaxy S25 series, Z Flip7, and Z Fold7, listing India, South Korea, the UK, and the US as the rollout markets. The S24 family was nowhere in that announcement. Then, the very next day, Samsung quietly pushed out S24-series beta builds anyway, in the US and India specifically, first spotted on X. Whether that was a deliberate staggered rollout or something Samsung simply hadn’t finalized in time for the September 1 announcement isn’t clear, but it does suggest Samsung’s beta expansion plans are moving faster, and less predictably, than the company’s own public statements have kept pace with.
The firmware itself splits by region: S92xU1UEU6ZZHL for US units, S92xBXXU6ZZHL for India, with the “x” standing in for whichever S24 model you’re running. Notably absent is the Galaxy S24 FE, which wasn’t mentioned as part of this particular build, so FE owners shouldn’t expect the beta banner to show up in Samsung Members just yet.
As for what’s actually changing, don’t expect anything close to the visual overhaul One UI 8.5 brought. This looks like a comparatively subtle update, thicker brightness and volume sliders, a redesigned lock-screen media player with colorful waveform animations, and a small wording tweak where “Media Output” now reads “This Phone.” It’s a refinement pass more than a redesign, layered on top of Android 17’s broader system-level changes.
Zooming out, this now marks three separate stages in about four months. The beta started with the Galaxy S26 in May, expanded to the S25 series and Samsung’s 2025 foldables on September 1, and reached the S24 lineup on September 2. That’s a noticeably faster cadence than Samsung’s One UI 8.5 rollout followed last cycle, and it suggests Samsung wants a much wider pool of devices testing Android 17 before committing to a stable release.
If you’re running an eligible S24-series phone in the US or India, the beta banner should be sitting in Samsung Members under the One UI 9 section already. Just keep in mind this is early-stage testing, not the finished product, so treat any bugs you run into as expected rather than alarming.
M Adnan Akram is the founder and lead writer at Phoonomo, covering mobile technology with a primary focus on Apple and the broader smartphone industry, alongside emerging developments in AI. He follows product launches, spec leaks, and industry trends closely to keep readers informed with timely updates.
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