Samsung has opened the One UI 9 Watch beta to the Galaxy Watch 7 and the original Galaxy Watch Ultra, and the interesting part is not the software version. According to SamMobile, the beta build adds Antioxidant Index and Vascular Load to both watches. Those are two health features Samsung’s own fine print had ruled out for the Galaxy Watch 7 barely a year ago.
The build is L300XXU2ZZI1 for the Watch 7 and L310XXU2ZZI1 for the Watch Ultra, carrying the September 2026 security patch. The download is roughly 1.9GB, which is a lot for a watch. It follows the Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic beta by about a week.
Two features the Galaxy Watch 7 was told it would not get
When Samsung detailed One UI 8 Watch in June 2025, the small print set a hardware floor. Vascular Load and Antioxidant Index would require a Galaxy Watch Ultra or newer. In practice that meant the Galaxy Watch 7 and everything older were shut out, even though the hardware differences were never spelled out for buyers.
Antioxidant Index shines light at your skin to estimate carotenoid levels. Vascular Load measures how hard your blood vessels work overnight. Both are wellness readings rather than medical ones, but they were used to sell the newer watches.
If SamMobile’s report holds through to a stable release, a 2024 watch is getting features that were positioned as a reason to upgrade to a 2025 one. That is worth stating plainly: it suggests the original cutoff was a product decision, not a hardware limit. No explanation appears in the beta changelog itself, which lists design, notification and health-shortcut changes without naming either feature.
Vascular Load is going away in the US anyway
Here is the catch for American readers. In July, Samsung posted a notice in the Samsung Health app telling US Galaxy Watch users that Vascular Load would be discontinued starting with Samsung Health v7.0 and One UI 9 Watch. Android Central reported the notice at the time.
Samsung said it would be replaced by a feature called Blood Pressure Trends. The notice says that feature will “check your blood pressure periodically to show you a trend over time. It will also give you tips to help support healthy habits.”
So the headline gain here may be a Korea-first one. Watch 7 owners in the US could end up with Antioxidant Index and a replacement metric rather than Vascular Load itself. No market-by-market breakdown of which One UI 9 Watch health features land where has surfaced, so treat the feature list as provisional until stable firmware reaches your region.
Where the beta is available
- Markets: South Korea now, with the US expected shortly. SamMobile reports those are the only two markets in the One UI 9 Watch beta programme.
- Devices in beta: Galaxy Watch 8, Watch 8 Classic, Galaxy Watch 7 and the original Galaxy Watch Ultra.
- Already shipping with One UI 9 Watch: Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.
- Enrolment: through the Samsung Members app, then check for the update in Galaxy Wearable.
We covered the Galaxy Watch8 beta opening in the US and Korea in August, including why installing beta firmware on a watch you rely on is a worse trade than it is on a phone. That advice has not changed. A 1.9GB early build on your only sleep tracker is not a bargain.
What it does not bring
One UI 9 Watch will not add seamless background updates to the Watch 7 or the original Watch Ultra. That mechanic depends on a dual-partition storage layout set at the factory, which is why it showed up first on the Galaxy Watch 9. Older watches will keep going dark for the length of an install.
Sources: SamMobile, Android Central
