Summary

  • Samsung’s One UI 8 update improves alarm group management.
  • Users can now easily add existing alarms to groups in One UI 8.
  • The update also brings interactive widgets for grouped alarms on the home screen.

We all know that one person who needs multiple consecutive alarms to get the day started, or people who use alarms to assist with punctuality as they go about their business. Although simple, alarms on smartphones aren’t as sophisticated as they could be. Samsung’s take on grouping alarms in One UI 7 was a departure from the stagnation, and One UI 8 rolling out now only makes it better with a simplified option to manage alarm groups.

A phone showing the One UI 7 quick toggles on the screen

Managing multiple alarms for the same activity with simple toggle switches and individual scheduling options can feel rather caveman-like. On the best Samsung phones running One UI 7, you get to pull related alarms into named groups, and then turn them all on or off with a single tap. One UI 8 just rolled out to users earlier this week, packing several changes we are still sifting through. However, AP alum and Samsung aficionado Zachary Kew-Denniss now reporting for Android Authority spotted a change in this update that fixes a gripe several alarm group users may have encountered in version 7.

If you tap the Plus icon in the alarm group, One UI assumes by default that you’re creating a new alarm in the group, completely excluding the possibility that you might be trying to pull one of your existing alarms into the selected group.

One UI 8 gives users the choice

And a widget too

With One UI 8, Samsung has changed the default behavior for this Plus button. Now, when you have an alarm group pulled up and you tap this button, you’ll get on-screen options to either create a new alarm or shift something you already created into the group you’re looking at.

Moreover, One UI 8 also updates the widgets suitably, now showing grouped alarms together in interactive widgets right on your home screen. These may seem like trivial, insignificant changes, but together, they make a big positive impact on the overall user experience, especially if you prefer keeping daily tasks on schedule using alarms.

One UI 8 is currently in beta, and Samsung opened the program up to accept the Galaxy S25 earlier this week. So, it may be a while before you see these changes on your device in the stable channel. We just hope they aren’t axed midway through the beta testing.