The update reaches Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific with a more flexible quick panel, new privacy controls, a redesigned Samsung Health and the October 2026 security patch.
Samsung has begun rolling out One UI 9, based on Android 17, to the Galaxy A16 (SM-A165F). Firmware build A165FXXUBEZJ7 went live on Samsung's update servers on November 2, 2026, in three regional packages over about 90 minutes, starting with Asia-Pacific. Samfrew's catalogue picked it up for 47 CSCs within two hours.
Samsung's official release notes for Kazakhstan date the update November 2, 2026 and list the October 5, 2026 security patch level. The notes for other countries hadn't been updated at the time of writing. As with every big release, not every phone will see the update notification on day one.
At a glance
- Device: Galaxy A16 (SM-A165F)
- Firmware build: A165FXXUBEZJ7
- CSC: A165FOXMBEZJ7 (Europe, Central Asia and Türkiye), A165FOJMBEZJ7 (Middle East and Africa), A165FOLMBEZJ7 (Asia-Pacific)
- Software: One UI 9 / Android 17
- Security patch: October 5, 2026
- Firmware size: 9.3 GB (European package)
Where it's rolling out
- Europe, Central Asia and Türkiye: unlocked phones in the EEA (EUX) and the rest of Europe (EUY), operator CSCs in France, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Serbia, plus Türkiye, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Central Asia (CAC).
- Middle East and Africa: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- Asia-Pacific: Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Indonesia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea got September's update but haven't received this one yet. Latin America's Galaxy A16 is a separate model (SM-A165M) and is still on Android 16.
A major upgrade, not a monthly patch
This is the SM-A165F's first One UI 9 release. The previous build, A165FXXSBDZH6 from September, was a security-only update that kept the phone on Android 16 with the August 2026 patch. A165FXXUBEZJ7 moves it to Android 17 and two months forward on security patches.
The rest of the family got there first: Korea's Galaxy A16 (SM-A165N) has had One UI 9 since October 21, and the Galaxy A16 5G started getting it on October 27.
What's new in One UI 9
More control over the quick panel. You can resize the brightness and volume sliders and the media player, and split the sound mode button off from the volume slider.
Privacy and device protection. A blue indicator now shows at the top of the screen whenever an app reads your location, and the quick panel tells you which app it was. Holding Volume down and the Side key together, or tapping the power button in the quick panel, locks the phone and disables biometrics for the next unlock. A new Warranty and care menu in Settings brings warranty details and diagnostic checks into one place.
A redesigned Samsung Health. Expect clearer charts, home-screen cards you can resize and group, quicker logging of meals and mood (including with the camera), zoomable trend charts, a daily heart-health score, cardio load and a new Fitness Index. Some features rely on wearables: sleep-vitals tracking uses Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring measurements, and the new Hearing tracker combines sound levels from a Galaxy Watch with your headphone volume.
Accessibility gains Text spotlight, which shows any tapped text enlarged in its own window, and Select to speak, which reads out a selected item without turning on TalkBack. There are also new physical-keyboard shortcuts, better mouse-keys controls, and TalkBack updates through the Play Store.
The Galaxy A16's update history
Samsung's release notes for the A16 start on Android 14 in November 2024. The phone then moved to One UI 7 (Android 15) in May 2025, One UI 8 (Android 16) in November 2025 and One UI 8.5 in June 2026. One UI 9 with Android 17 is its third major Android upgrade.
How to update
On the phone, open Settings → Software update → Download and install. Rollout timing can vary by country and carrier.
If you'd rather flash it yourself, use firmware that matches your exact model (SM-A165F) and CSC. On Samfrew: Europe (EUX), Morocco (MWD) and Thailand (THL), with every other CSC on the SM-A165F firmware page.
See the Galaxy A16's specs, variants and full firmware history on Samfrew.
Sources: Samsung's official release notes for Kazakhstan, and Samfrew's firmware catalogue. Checked November 2, 2026.