Samsung's free update gives a two-year-old Galaxy S24 many S26 tricks

Samsung began rolling out stable One UI 9 to older Galaxy phones in October 2026. Android Police installed it on a Galaxy S24 Ultra and found that most of the Galaxy AI tools built for the Galaxy S26 now run on the older phone. It does not turn the S24 into an S26, but the software gap is much smaller than expected.

What the update adds

One UI is Samsung's software layer on Galaxy phones. Several AI features that once ran only on the S26 series have now reached the S24.

• Now Nudge reads the screen and suggests a next step, such as adding a date from a message to the calendar.
• Call Brief shows context during a call, like a shared calendar event or the local time for an international number.
• My FanCam lets you pick a person in a video and creates a new clip that follows them, in any shape you choose.
• Now Brief gathers health, weather and YouTube information into cards on a schedule.

Now Nudge is in Settings > Galaxy AI. Call Brief does nothing until Personal Data Intelligence is switched on, so that is the first setting to check after updating. My FanCam also works on clips shot before the update.

Other changes

The Quick Panel now lets you resize and rearrange the brightness, volume and media controls separately. Android 17 adds a blue indicator when an app uses your location, and tapping it shows which app. Samsung Notes gets a Tape tool that hides part of a note until tapped, plus new pen styles. Samsung DeX makes it easier to move app windows between desktops, and Settings has a new Warranty and care page.

What is still missing

Some gaps come down to hardware. The S26 Ultra has a Privacy Display, 60W wired charging (the S24 Ultra tops out at 45W) and a faster Snapdragon chip. An update cannot change that. Other gaps are harder to explain.

• Notification highlights, which summarize and prioritize alerts, did not come to the S24.
• Priority notifications in Now Brief are also absent.
• Horizontal Lock, which keeps the horizon level while recording, is missing.
• The 24MP camera option and extra Pro video frame rates (25, 48, 50 and 100 fps) are not there.

Horizontal Lock stands out. The Galaxy S25 gets it in One UI 9, which suggests the S24 could run it too. Samsung has not explained why these features skipped the S24. Some S24 owners in Samsung's community forums are questioning which features are truly tied to hardware.

What happens next

The S24 series was the first Samsung lineup with a seven-year update promise. That means four more major Android upgrades after One UI 9. The reviewer hopes One UI 9.5 will add Notification highlights and Horizontal Lock, but Samsung has made no such promise. If Samsung keeps bringing new AI features to older phones, S24 owners may not need to upgrade for years.