It is onerous to consider contemplating how lengthy it took for Samsung to ship the One UI 7 replace, however the first One UI 8 beta is already right here for the Galaxy S25 household. One UI 8 brings Android 16 to the Galaxy S25 for the primary time, letting choose customers check out new options earlier than they’re publicly launched to everybody.
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For probably the most half, One UI 8 is an iterative replace with UI tweaks and new characteristic additions for a number of of Samsung’s core apps, together with Samsung Well being, Reminders, Routines, Web, Calendar, Contacts, and extra.
The replace additionally refreshes vital elements of the UI, together with a revamped Fast Share UI that makes it simpler to ship and obtain recordsdata, extra accessibility choices for customers with sight and listening to impairments, plus fixes for hard-to-find UI parts like Auracast.
Whereas the replace consists of dozens of modifications, I’ve picked out my eight favourite, with a number of follow-up favorites discovered throughout my time with the beta on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely.
AI Choose meets Pace Racer
With One UI 7, Samsung upgraded its ageing Good Choose software to what it now calls AI Choose, including vital context-sensitive actions that make the software way more helpful than it was. Nevertheless it took seemingly perpetually to begin up in One UI 7 and received fairly irritating to make use of regularly.
That is been utterly fastened in One UI 8. It used to take roughly 5 seconds from tapping the “AI Choose” button to the time you might really choose content material in your display. Now, tapping AI choose makes the characteristic successfully instantly obtainable, taking me about 2 seconds to circle a picture on the Galaxy S25 Extremely’s show.
Multitasking is 90:10 higher
When the OnePlus Open got here out in 2023, it blew our minds for a number of causes, however the telephone’s multitasking capabilities have been among the many greatest options to make use of every day. Paramount to that was one thing known as OnePlus Canvas, a characteristic that allow you to dock an app to 10% of 1 facet of the display and rapidly swap between any working app by tapping the window.
Android 16 and One UI 8 have adopted this 90:10 characteristic, because it’s known as, letting you resize a break up window all the way down to 10% of its regular dimension. This allows you to simply juggle two apps with a single faucet with out feeling just like the app is squashed, as regular break up display tends to really feel. Holy cow is it ever an enormous improve on the conventional break up window multitasking, and it will give me a motive to lastly use multiple app at a time.
Fast Share received some faster tweaks
Fast Share has been some of the helpful additions to Android in fairly a while, however receiving recordsdata from individuals who aren’t contacts has been a little bit of a trouble. A flowery new UI change from Samsung makes this a lot simpler, and all of it begins if you faucet the Fast Share button within the fast toggles pane.
The acquainted Ship display continues to be the default when opening Fast Share, however a brand new Obtain tab makes it easy to rapidly get recordsdata from anybody as long as the window is open. No extra choosing from the “nobody, contacts solely, or everybody” choices. Simply open the Obtain window and also you’re good to go, irrespective of who the opposite individual is.
Extra highly effective reminders and routines
One of many dumber issues Google ever did was take away the power so as to add a location to reminders in Google Assistant. That makes instruments like Samsung’s Reminder app significantly better to make use of, as you cna have it remind you of one thing if you get to a location, at a sure and or date, and extra. The upgraded Reminders app now additionally consists of fast class buttons on the high, making it straightforward to seek out all the things you want at a look.
Routines additionally received an improve, now letting you choose from new preset routines like climate, which is fairly slick if you happen to want a reminder to seize your umbrella or rain coat earlier than it rains, or sunscreen when the cloudy days finish.
Samsung Well being will get a bulk up
As soon as upon a time, I attempted to log my meals consumption so I may observe energy, macros, and simply do higher. The issue is that I all the time forgot to enter my meals, and would not bear in mind till I had forgotten the precise particulars of what I ate. Now, Samsung Well being can remind you to log meals all through the day, circumventing this widespread downside.
As you eat higher, you too can now use the ability of peer stress that can assist you exercise extra usually. An upgraded Collectively characteristic in Samsung Well being enables you to concern run distance challenges to all of your contacts, setting objectives to be the primary to run a selected distance every week. It is an excellent improve on the standard step rely race.
The higher to see (and listen to) you with
When you’ve ever discovered your self in want of the zoom software, present in accessibility settings, you will know it is slightly convoluted to zoom in or out with. One UI 8 fixes this by letting you pinch-to-zoom proper within the magnification window, making it far simpler to pull the window round and zoom in as you want.
A handful of extra accessibility options are additionally now obtainable, like keyboard zoom, which enlarges the keys as you want them, or a brand new mouse pointer that you could management with keyboard keys.
Auracast with out the 50-step course of
Auracast’s announcement final 12 months had Android Central’s Derrek Lee feeling like he was sooner or later. In any case, connecting your Bluetooth earbuds to a public broadcast seems like such an alien idea for what has all the time been a really private communication normal, however discovering and connecting to an Auracast wasn’t precisely probably the most user-friendly process.
Fortunately, Samsung’s One UI 8 now enables you to scan a QR code to connect with an Auracast, one thing that is virtually definitely going to change into commonplace as public spots implement the know-how. So lengthy, 50-step strategy of yesterday!
DeX is not useless
Whereas the Dex for PC app was killed off in One UI 7, Samsung is not carried out with DeX simply but. Hooking up your Samsung telephone or pill to a monitor or TV is straightforward, and One UI 7 gave the storied characteristic a recent coat of paint.
Now, One UI 8 is introducing extra choices for monitor compatibility, together with the power to decide on a decision (think about that), and even rotate the projected show in 90-degree increments. That makes it straightforward to suit on mainly any monitor, even when it is mounted sideways.
A lot extra to see
One UI 8 will not be the massive overhaul that One UI 7 was, which is sweet. We do not want huge overhauls each launch. It is simply not crucial. So, Samsung is concentrated on making One UI 7 even higher with useful options and modifications that appear to make quite a lot of sense. Even the climate app, seen above, has a extra real looking really feel, providing you with a greater thought of the climate the second you open it.
Some customers on Reddit have reported bugs already, which is sensible since it is a beta launch. If you wish to try One UI 8 early, open the Samsung Members app in your Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, or Galaxy S25 Extremely, then faucet the One UI 8 Beta choice within the picture carousel on the high. When you’re enrolled, it will obtain and set up the system replace. We do not suggest doing this in your solely telephone, as bugs may trigger issues for any variety of apps.
When you come throughout a bug, use the bug reporting software to let the builders know in order that they will get it fastened within the subsequent beta launch. This helps everybody — not simply you — so customers are inspired to make use of the software as usually as attainable, even when Samsung is aware of the bug already exists. That is Samsung’s quickest One UI replace ever, and it is nice to see Samsung working so onerous to ship on that seven 12 months replace promise for the Galaxy S25 sequence so rapidly.
