One UI 7 sets a date, sets another one, then gets cold feet in this week’s news

One UI 7
should be old news by now, but we’re still tracking rumors and updates about its release. Samsung’s version of Android 15 has been lauded by those who’ve gotten a chance to use it, but for some reason, the company just can’t seem to get over the hump when it comes to rolling out a stable version to existing phones.

The week in mobile saw Samsung finally set a date for One UI 7’s stable release before essentially correcting itself and then ultimately deleting a post about it before dipping for the weekend. Meanwhile, Google finally showed off its Pixel 9a and we learned that the “a” definitely doesn’t stand for “AI.” All this happened as satellite texting went mainstream, Gboard got an Undo button, and Pixel 10 specifics started to roll in.

One UI 7 sets a date, sets another one, then gets cold feet

First, we thought a beta might come in late July 2024 ahead of a stable rollout in fall or winter. Then, Samsung itself confirmed a mid-winter beta launch, and followed that up by saying the stable update would hit phones by roughly next weekend. For months, the Galaxy S24 was the only phone with beta access, but Samsung finally released One UI 7 beta builds to other phones two weeks ago.

This week, Samsung set a date for the stable rollout, saying the update should start hitting its 2024 flagships on April 7th. But then, it followed up a day later by saying the update would hit on April 10th in the US, and that the 7th was simply the launch date in its home country. The company even explained which older phones would get the update, and everything finally seemed back on track. Except, at the end of the week, that April 10th announcement post vanished from Samsung’s US site, suggesting we might be in for yet another delay.

The ‘a’ in Pixel 9a definitely doesn’t stand for ‘AI’

After leaking for months and even showing up on store shelves ahead of its release date, Google officially unveiled the Pixel 9a this week. On paper, it seems to be a rock-solid midrange option, striking a balance Apple couldn’t achieve with its iPhone 16e.

With cost being an important factor, some corners had to be cut. Even though it has the same SoC as its flagship siblings, it’s using a modem from the Pixel 8 era — not the end of the world, except it means satellite connectivity is out of the question (more on that next). But the sacrifice that might sting the most is the phone’s pedestrian 8GB of RAM, which, in the AI era, means it loses a lot of Gemini functionality — an unexpected twist for a Google phone in 2025.

Satellite texting is the new bragging right

With the Pixel 9a proving satellite messaging and emergency SOS functionality are still too exclusive for the midrange masses, it’s looking like the biggest names in mobile intend to use space-based connectivity as a bragging right for their premium offerings in 2025.

Google’s Pixel 9 series and Samsung’s Galaxy S25 lineup both touted emergency SOS via satellite networks at launch, giving you a way to get help when you don’t have a cell signal. Now, Verizon has started rolling out satellite texting service to these models, letting you chat with friends when you’re out of range. T-Mobile had already done the same in beta, but late in the week, an unexpected pair of MVNOs started rolling out their own version of the service.

The 9a is nice and all, but what about that Pixel 10?

In tech news, what’s now is always second fiddle to what’s next. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, on the week Google announced its new Pixel 9a, leakers turned their attention to the Pixel 10 series in earnest.

A massive Tensor G5 specs leak gave us insight into how Google is handling the shift from Samsung’s chip foundry to industry-leading TSMC, and it looks like this might be the leap we’ve been hoping for with the Pixel’s in-house SoCs. Then, at the end of the week, the Pixel 10 randomly showed up in an AOSP commit, suggesting the new model could get a software speed boost to go along with its new and improved processor.

Gboard finally gets an Undo button

Ever get a little too swipe-happy with Gboard’s satisfying delete gesture? Then you’ve surely found yourself looking for an undo option, only to find there wasn’t one.

Thankfully, that finally changed this week, with Gboard rolling out an Undo button to everyone on the stable channel. As of version 15, you’ll now see an Undo option in the suggestion strip after making certain changes to text — and tapping this reveals a Redo button in case you want to undo what you’ve undone.