Newsletter
T-Mobile has started pushing the One UI 2.5 update to the Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+, and the Galaxy Note 9. The three 2018 Samsung flagships are receiving the updates with firmware versions G960USQU8FTJ3, G965USQU8FTJ3, and N960USQU5FTJ3 respectively.
This update also introduces the October 2020 Android security patch to the three devices. Although Samsung has already seeded the latest November 2020 Android security patch to the unlocked variants of these phones, it’s not very surprising that carrier variants have yet to make the jump. Carrier variants of almost every smartphone are usually a few weeks late to receive the latest updates.
Even the One UI 2.5 first hit the unlocked variants of the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+, and the Galaxy Note 9 last month. T-Mobile is now pushing the updates as well, introducing a host of goodies to the still-capable two-year-old machines.
T-Mobile pushes One UI 2.5 to Galaxy S9 and Note 9 phones
The changelog on T-Mobile’s official website doesn’t go into detail about what this update brings to these devices. It only mentions the security patch, One UI 2.5, and other additional updates and improvements. However, we do know that One UI 2.5 is a major update from Samsung and it packs a good amount of new features and enhancements.
Samsung introduced One UI 2.5 with the Galaxy Note 20 series in August. The company has since pushed the latest stable version of its custom Android skin (Android 11 based One UI 3.0 is still in beta) to a number of other Galaxy smartphones as well.
One UI 2.5 brings the ability to change Single Take duration, enhanced Pro video mode, wireless DeX, and several other new features to compatible Samsung smartphones. It also adds the possibility of using Android 10 navigation gestures in third-party app launchers.
The default Samsung Keyboard gets the split keyboard functionality when using the device in landscape mode. Users can also now set the Messages app to send SOS messages every 30 minutes for 24 hours.
Last but not least, One UI 2.5 adds sound to Motion photos. This particular addition was missing from Samsung’s official changelog for the update, but it’s there. Motion photos is a camera feature that lets you capture a short clip alongside a photo. And with One UI 2.5, you can add sound to the clip as well. It now remains to be seen if all these goodies are part of the One UI 2.5 update for T-Mobile’s variants of the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+, and the Galaxy Note 9 as well.
As said earlier, this is a major update that requires you to download a big file over the air (OTA). The file size for the Galaxy Note 9 weighs in at around 840MB. The two Galaxy S9 models should be receiving similar size updates as well. So it’s advisable that you connect to a stable Wi-Fi network before downloading the update.