Samsung has yet to finish the One UI 8 rollout; meanwhile, a new report suggests One UI 9 could bring major upgrades to the AOD feature.
Currently, Samsung is rolling out Android 16-based One UI 8 to the rest of the eligible Galaxy devices. Apart from this, it is also actively working on its next major iteration, One UI 8.5, to release next year, initially with the Galaxy S26 series.
On the other hand, Google has already started working on its next OS iteration, i.e., Android 17, on which Samsung’s One UI 9 will be based. A new report from one of our reliable colleagues, Android Authority, reveals that Google is developing a new feature called “Mini Mode,” which was discovered in the source code of Android Canary 2510.
The code strings described the feature as an extension of AOD that will allow a few particular apps to display a stripped-down version on the interface, even when the phone is locked. Noticeably, this newly spotted “Min Mode” feature will not replace the traditional AOD, but utilizes the same battery-saving display mechanism, with brightness, refresh rate, and color limited to optimized power.
Google Maps is the first app that is said to be compatible with this feature, with a power-saving navigation mode that displays in a simple color scheme, is optimized for AOD. Since One UI 9 will be based on Android 17, it might be possible that Samsung will adopt the Mini Mode feature.
