It is laborious 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 essentially the most half, One UI 8 is an iterative replace with UI tweaks and new function 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 necessary elements of the UI, together with a revamped Fast Share UI that makes it simpler to ship and obtain recordsdata, further accessibility choices for customers with sight and listening to impairments, plus fixes for hard-to-find UI components like Auracast.
Whereas the replace contains dozens of changes, I’ve picked out my eight favourite, with just a few follow-up favorites discovered throughout my time with the beta on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
AI Choose meets Velocity Racer
With One UI 7, Samsung upgraded its growing older Good Choose device to what it now calls AI Choose, including necessary context-sensitive actions that make the device way more helpful than it was once. But it surely took seemingly eternally to start out up in One UI 7 and bought 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 could possibly truly choose content material in your display screen. Now, tapping AI choose makes the function successfully instantly accessible, 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 function that allow you to dock an app to 10% of 1 aspect of the display screen and rapidly change between any working app by tapping the window.
Android 16 and One UI 8 have adopted this 90:10 function, because it’s known as, letting you resize a cut up window all the way down to 10% of its regular measurement. This allows you to simply juggle two apps with a single faucet with out feeling just like the app is squashed, as regular cut up display screen tends to really feel. Holy cow is it ever an enormous improve on the conventional cut up window multitasking, and it will give me a purpose to lastly use multiple app at a time.
Fast Share bought some faster tweaks
Fast Share has been one 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 elaborate new UI change from Samsung makes this a lot simpler, and all of it begins whenever you faucet the Fast Share button within the fast toggles pane.
The acquainted Ship display screen 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 deciding on 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 flexibility 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 whenever you get to a location, at a sure and or date, and extra. The upgraded Reminders app now additionally contains fast class buttons on the prime, making it straightforward to search out every thing you want at a look.
Routines additionally bought an improve, now letting you choose from new preset routines like climate, which is fairly slick when you 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 might monitor energy, macros, and simply do higher. The issue is that I all the time forgot to enter my meals, and would not keep 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 frequent drawback.
As you eat higher, you too can now use the facility of peer strain that can assist you exercise extra usually. An upgraded Collectively function in Samsung Well being permits you to problem run distance challenges to all of your contacts, setting targets to be the primary to run a particular distance every week. It is an amazing improve on the same old step depend race.
The higher to see (and listen to) you with
If you happen to’ve ever discovered your self in want of the zoom device, present in accessibility settings, you may 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 further accessibility options are additionally now accessible, like keyboard zoom, which enlarges the keys as you want them, or a brand new mouse pointer which you could management with keyboard keys.
Auracast with out the 50-step course of
Auracast’s announcement final yr had Android Central’s Derrek Lee feeling like he was in the future. In any case, connecting your Bluetooth earbuds to a public broadcast appears 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 exactly the most user-friendly task.
Fortunately, Samsung’s One UI 8 now permits you to scan a QR code to connect with an Auracast, one thing that is virtually definitely going to turn into commonplace as public spots implement the expertise. 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 finished with DeX simply but. Hooking up your Samsung telephone or pill to a monitor or TV is easy, and One UI 7 gave the storied function a contemporary coat of paint.
Now, One UI 8 is introducing extra choices for monitor compatibility, together with the flexibility 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 principally 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 nice. We do not want large overhauls each launch. It is simply not mandatory. So, Samsung is concentrated on making One UI 7 even higher with useful options and adjustments that appear to make plenty of sense. Even the climate app, seen above, has a extra reasonable really feel, supplying you with a greater concept 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 take a look at 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 possibility within the picture carousel on the prime. 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 might trigger issues for any variety of apps.
If you happen to come throughout a bug, use the bug reporting tool to let the builders know in order that they’ll get it fastened within the subsequent beta launch. This helps everybody — not simply you — so customers are inspired to make use of the device as usually as potential, 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 laborious to ship on that seven yr replace promise for the Galaxy S25 sequence so rapidly.
