The One UI 9 Watch beta program for existing Samsung smartwatches could be close to launching after a One UI 9 Watch beta firmware for the Galaxy Watch 8 was spotted on Samsung’s servers.
One UI 9 Watch beta spotted for Galaxy Watch 8
Samsung began testing One UI 9 Watch for the Galaxy Watch 8 series in July. At the time there was hope the public beta program would start before the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 were officially unveiled, mirroring last year’s rollout of the One UI 8 Watch beta for existing watches ahead of the Galaxy Watch 8 and Galaxy Watch 8 Classic.
That did not happen. The Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 have already been unveiled and are on sale in several markets, with both running One UI 9 Watch (based on Wear OS 7) out of the box.
What it means for existing Galaxy watches
With the new watches now on retail shelves, Samsung could move to bring One UI 9 Watch to existing models through a beta program. Samsung previously made the One UI 8 Watch beta available for the Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 5 lineups, even though the stable update was also released for the Galaxy Watch 4 series.
