What you need to know
- A report claims that Samsung is preparing to roll out a One UI 8.5 beta program for its Galaxy users in late fall this November.
- It’s unclear from the rumor mill whether Samsung will start testing at the same time for everyone, but it’s possible that regions like the US and Europe will see it sometime after South Korea.
- Previous One UI 8.5 rumors questioned whether or not Samsung would consider a beta for this 0.5 OS, and it seems like there’s a chance.
Recent rumors of SamMobile claim that Samsung is continuing on an atypical path with One UI, as it may seek a One UI 8.5 beta program. According to the publication, Samsung is preparing to launch a beta period for its OS 8.5 software later this year. Rumors suggest that this beta program could start arriving on Galaxy phones late next month, during the week of November 24.
It’s unclear whether this beta program will launch for users in the United States, Europe, and other regions, as it likely would (if true) for South Korea. On the contrary, other regions would experience a gradual deployment at the end of November, continuing until December.
It is suspected that the current wave of Samsung devices equipped with One UI 8 will see this beta version of One UI 8.5. However, it’s still unclear how big of a network (and how fast) Samsung would do such a thing if that’s where it’s heading.
Users could get their wish
What’s more interesting about this rumor is that the tipsters has speculated about the possibility of a One UI 8.5 beta in September. It was around this time that tipsters reportedly found Samsung’s first test build of One UI 8.5 on its internal test servers. The company is reportedly testing the software using its Galaxy S25 series, although One UI 8.5 is not expected to roll out until the Galaxy S26 launches.
The bottom line is that there was very little to unpack, because the software had only just appeared. However, users have questioned the potential for a beta, and there has been nothing concrete until now – it seems.
Speculation claims that this version 8.5 of the operating system could bring serious improvements in terms of features and new elements to discover, rather than a simple “8.1” update. These rumors have continued, as a more recent report claims that Samsung is working on a call screening feature, similar to Google’s Pixel. This is powered by AI and could automatically “respond, transcribe and filter spam or unknown calls for users”. There was another report that Samsung was also starting to test a Galaxy Buds 4 Pro.
