Samsung's big free software upgrade could be here next week – with some inspiration from Apple!

Owners of Samsung phones certainly aren't a rare breed. According to data from Statista, the brand retains the largest share of the of global smartphone market right now, and has been vying for the top spot for pretty much as long as records have been kept.

For most non-tech obsessed folks, the choice sits between Apple's iPhone, or Samsung if you fancy an Android phone. Now, users of Samsung handsets could be set to get a killer free software upgrade very soon.

That's according to reliable tipster, Ice Universe. In a post on Twitter, Ice said "It will take another half month before Beta starts," in reference to Samsung's One UI 7 beta version.

That was posted on November the 1st, though, which could mean software landing on devices by as early as next Friday (15th November). That's the mathematical middle of the month, though of course it could stray a little either side of that.

That is slightly later than usual from the brand, who have suggested that a stable build could arrive by early 2025. In previous years, devices have sometimes had stable versions of the software by this point in the year.

Apple-inspired features

There are already a wide array of features rumoured for this software update. Alongside updates to the Google-powered Circle to Search, we're expecting to see some new camera features and a redesigned version of the Energy Score feature.

There could also be a feature coming which is taken straight from the Apple playbook, too. The news comes from a tipster called Chun Bhai, who is not known to T3. We'd usually recommend taking this with a pinch of salt, though it does appear that this user has some access to One UI 7 given their posting history.

The tweet in question suggests that Samsung will make use of an AI-powered notification summary feature, similar to one teased for Apple devices in the latest version of iOS 18.

That would be a fairly significant update. While there have been all manner of AI-powered features touted from different brands, a notification summary is something which almost everyone would make use of.