Samsung’s One UI 8 story has been an exceptional case, despite several delays happening in the past with the One UI 7 rollout right from its initial days. Since the entire Galaxy audience is excited to experience the latest One UI 8 version, it’s currently running in its initial beta stage. Curious to know more? Here’s everything that happened with One UI 8 so far!
One UI 8 Beta: The initial beta process
To begin with, first up, it’s impressive that Samsung took the charge to begin One UI 8 on time, following Android 16’s on-track progress. The company opened the One UI 8 beta program for the Galaxy S25 series exactly two weeks ago, where the first beta was reserved for Phase 1 countries, followed by the expansion of beta 1 in more countries in early June.
At the same time, Samsung started the distribution of One UI 8 beta 2 for the Galaxy S25 family; however, this new build was currently only limited to a few countries, excluding India and Poland.
- One UI 8 Beta 1: May 28, 2025
- One UI 8 Beta Expansion (Beta 1): June 12, 2025
- One UI 8 Beta 2: June 12, 2025
One UI Beta Program eligible countries:
For years, Samsung has followed a significant pattern of releasing the One UI Beta program in seven reserved countries, including South Korea, Germany, India, Poland, the US, China, and the UK. However, in the recent past, the company has potentially removed China from the list, leaving behind six countries that are reserved to test the current latest beta build.
With One UI 7, Samsung completely changed its release strategy. The beta testing countries are now divided into two phases, where phase 1 consists of major regions like the US, South Korea, and Germany, while the second phase includes India and Poland.
Current availability status: countries and devices
The One UI 8 Beta 1 has been released for Phase 1 countries, including Germany, South Korea, the UK, and the US, while the Beta 2 includes the same regions, excluding India and Poland, as they are currently testing One UI 8 Beta 1.
At the same time, Samsung has only released One UI 8 Beta for the Galaxy S25 models, including the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra. Although it’s expected that the company will make the latest beta build available for more eligible Galaxymodels like the Galaxy S24 family.
One UI 8 beta: Features & refinements
Since One UI 8 will run Android 16 on top, the beta 1 arrived with several new features that significantly focus on enhancing productivity, multitasking, reminders, calendars, and more, while also introducing certain utility features with some visual changes in various elements, such as the UI and other relevant apps.
On the other hand, One UI 8 Beta 2 simply focuses on bug fixes and improvements, where the latest build fixes Now Brief’s alignment issue, improves the battery widget icon, fixes the fingerprint recognition screen failure issue, fixes the non-functioning error in Galaxy AI, and many more fixes and improvements. Also, One UI 8 looks more refined and exciting than One UI 7.
Now, what’s next?
For now, only the Galaxy S25 series owners have been testing both One UI 8 beta and Beta 2 in selective regions, while it is expected that Samsung could expand the beta build to more eligible Galaxy devices soon. Since the next-generation Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 are already confirmed to debut with One UI 8 out of the box, it’s possible that Samsung has scheduled the launch timeline of One UI 8 somewhere in July 2025.
