Preferred aspects of the One UI 8 beta:
Ready to dive into the exciting world of the Galaxy S25 family's first taste of One UI 8? This innovative update brings Android 16 to life, giving select users a sneak peek at new features before they become available to everyone.
Welcome to our weekly tech dive, where we deep-dive into gadgets, from phones and tablets to everything in between. Let's take a closer look at the anticipated One UI 8 beta!
One UI 8 is all about refining existing features and adding some nifty new tweaks to several of Samsung's core apps, such as Samsung Health, Reminders, Routines, Internet, Calendar, Contacts, and more. In addition, it refreshes essential aspects of the UI, ranging from a revamped Quick Share UI to improved accessibility options for users with sight and hearing impairments.
While One UI 8 boasts dozens of changes, I've handpicked my top eight favorite upgrades, highlighting some extra ones I discovered during my time with the beta on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Winning the AI Race
With One UI 7, Samsung enhanced its aging Smart Select tool to AI Select, which added context-sensitive actions that made the tool far more useful than before. However, it took a frustratingly long time to start up, making it an irritating daily hindrance.
Fortunately, One UI 8 has solved this issue. Instead of taking 5 seconds from clicking the AI Select button to accessing content on the screen, the feature is now instantly available with a mere 2-second wait when you tap AI Select on the Galaxy S25 Ultra's display.
Mastering Multitasking
When the OnePlus Open came out in 2023, it left us awestruck for several reasons, but its exceptional multitasking capabilities were among the best daily features. At the heart of this excellence lay OnePlus Canvas, which allowed you to dock an app to 10% of one side of the screen and swiftly switch between any running app by tapping the window.
One UI 8 and Android 16 have adopted the 90:10 feature, allowing you to resize a split window down to 10% of its normal size. This facilitates easy app juggling without making the app feel squashed, significantly upgrading the normal split-screen multitasking experience.
Quick Share's Speed Boost
Quick Share ranks among the most valuable additions to Android in recent times. However, receiving files from individuals who aren't your contacts has been somewhat tricky. A slick new UI tweak from Samsung makes this much easier by opening the receiving window with a mere tap, making file transfers available to anyone, regardless of their contact status.
More Powerful Reminders and Routines
One of Google's dumber decisions was removing the option to add a location to reminders in Google Assistant. This makes tools such as Samsung's Reminder app far more useful since you can set notifications to remind you of something when you reach a location, at a specific time, and more.
The revamped Reminders app now also includes quick category buttons at the top, making it easy to find everything you need at a glance. Routines have also received an upgrade, now allowing you to choose from new preset routines like weather, which is super handy for getting reminders to carry an umbrella or sunscreen as needed.
Samsung Health's Hardcore Upgrade
If you've ever found yourself forgetting to log your meals to track calories or macros, One UI 8 can help with that. The upgraded Samsung Health app now reminds you to log meals throughout the day, eliminating the common forgetfulness issue.
As you prioritize healthier eating, the enhanced Together feature in Samsung Health now lets you issue running distance challenges to your contacts, setting weekly goals to be the first to run a specified distance. It's a fantastic upgrade over the usual step count race.
Enhanced Vision and Hearing
If you've ever needed to zoom in or out using the accessibility setting's zoom tool, you know it can be convoluted to use. One UI 8 simplifies this by allowing you to pinch-to-zoom right in the magnification window, making it far easier to move the window around and zoom as needed.
A selection of additional accessibility features are also now available, such as keyboard zoom, which enlarges the keys as you need them, or a new mouse pointer that you control with keyboard keys.
Auracast: The Future is Here
When Auracast was first announced last year, it had our resident tech expert Derrek Lee feeling like he was stepping into the future. After all, connecting your Bluetooth earbuds to a public broadcast feels like a futuristic concept, considering personal communication standards have always been private.
Thankfully, Samsung's One UI 8 now allows you to scan a QR code to connect to an Auracast, a seemingly common practice for public spots adopting the technology. Say goodbye to the 50-step process of the past!
Dex Isn't Obsolete
While the Dex for PC app was axed in One UI 7, Samsung isn't abandoning Dex just yet. Connecting your Samsung phone or tablet to a monitor or TV is easy, and One UI 7 gave the esteemed feature a fresh coat of paint. Now, One UI 8 introduces more options for monitor compatibility, including the ability to choose a resolution or even rotate the projected display in 90-degree increments, ensuring a comfortable fit on virtually any monitor.
So Much More to Explore
One UI 8 won't be a massive overhaul like One UI 7, which is great because we don't need overhauls every release. Instead, Samsung focuses on making One UI 7 even better by introducing helpful features and updates that make sense. Even the weather app has a more realistic layout, providing a better initial glimpse of the weather.
Some Reddit users have already reported bugs with the beta version, which is understandable considering it's in development. To get an early look at One UI 8, open the Samsung Members app on your Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25 Plus, or Galaxy S25 Ultra, and tap the One UI 8 Beta option in the image carousel at the top. Once you're enrolled, it will download and install the system update. Remember not to install this update on your only phone, as bugs could adversely affect various apps.
If you encounter a bug, use the built-in bug reporting tool to notify the developers, helping them fix issues in the next beta release. This helps everyone, not just you, so users are encouraged to use the tool as often as necessary. Samsung is aiming to deliver the fastest One UI update ever for the Galaxy S25 series, making good on its seven-year update promise.
In this week's tech dive, we'll be exploring the anticipated features of the One UI 8 beta on smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. One of the notable improvements is the enhanced AI Select tool, now called Smart Select, which has been optimized for quicker access, reducing the wait time from 5 seconds to just 2 seconds.
Additionally, the One UI 8 update includes the 90:10 feature, similar to OnePlus Canvas, allowing for easy app juggling by resizing a split window down to 10% of its normal size. This upgrade significantly enhances the normal split-screen multitasking experience.
