Samsung One UI 6.1.1 reportedly rolling out on Galaxy S22 phones

The amount of times that Samsung has pushed back an update over the last few months has led to much speculation and frustration among owners of the Samsung Galaxy S24, Galaxy S23, and Galaxy S22 lines of phones. While we’ve talked exhaustively about the One UI 7 beta’s constant release delays (it may roll out in late September or early October, now), the stable version of One UI 6.1.1 has taken a while to get pushed out to everyone’s devices. European and American Galaxy S24 owners got the update first on September 9, and then the Galaxy S23 series saw it available just a few days later. Now, the Galaxy S22 series is starting to get the update.

X user @theonecid, who monitors online forums relating to Samsung devices, posted a screenshot of a Galaxy S22 in South Korea’s alleged One UI 6.1.1 update screen, indicating that, at least in that phone’s region, the rollout has begun. We knew that the Galaxy S22 would get the update, as it was on the list of phones that Samsung originally announced would get One UI 6.1.1, but it’s still nice to see it come to fruition. We believe that this specific screenshot is from a random forum poster, so while we can’t yet verify its authenticity or where it stems from, there’s little reason to believe this not to be an accurate report.

The One U(I)pdate that took too long

Back in June, we first reported that the One UI 7 beta could be pushed back in favor of getting the stable version of One UI 6.1.1 out to the masses. That was over three months ago; needless to say, both updates have taken and are taking longer than anyone expected them to. One UI 7 promises to bring a host of changes and new updates to the Samsung skin of Android, and even though we talked about one of its first “brief” delays in July, the fact that it’s gotten pushed back into Q4 2024 has us both concerned and hopeful that Samsung is ironing out all the bugs before it is released. That didn’t stop Samsung from releasing a buggy One UI 6.1.1 for the Galaxy S23 Ultra, however. We were the first to report on a camera zoom-in glitch on Galaxy S23 Ultras with One UI 6.1.1 on it.

The changes that will come with One UI 7 will be vast, according to reports. There may be icon and home page changes that make the OS look more like Apple’s iOS, satellite connectivity to help contact people when you don’t have access to a network, and camera app changes to make one-hand usage more comfortable. Relatively minor tweaks and design alterations were to some of the most recent One UI versions, and with One UI 7 seemingly containing so much change, we’re not shocked that it’s taking so long to see a beta (we’re just disappointed). However, we do feel like Samsung needs to innovate its hardware instead of ruining its software for the sake of change in this stagnant smartphone world we live in.