It is exhausting to imagine 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.

For essentially 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 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 parts like Auracast.

Whereas the replace consists of 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 Pace Racer

With One UI 7, Samsung upgraded its getting older Good Choose instrument to what it now calls AI Choose, including necessary context-sensitive actions that make the instrument much more helpful than it was once. Nevertheless it took seemingly eternally to start out up in One UI 7 and bought fairly irritating to make use of regularly.

That is been fully mounted in One UI 8. It used to take roughly 5 seconds from tapping the “AI Choose” button to the time you might truly choose content material in your display. Now, tapping AI choose makes the characteristic successfully instantly out there, 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 had been among the many finest 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 shortly change 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 cut up window right 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 cut up display tends to really feel. Holy cow is it ever a large improve on the conventional cut up window multitasking, and it will give me a purpose to lastly use a couple of app at a time.

Fast Share bought some faster tweaks

Fast Share has been probably the most 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 remains to be the default when opening Fast Share, however a brand new Obtain tab makes it easy to shortly 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 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 whenever 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 simple to search out every part 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 at all times 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 drawback.

As you eat higher, it’s also possible to now use the facility of peer stress that will help you exercise extra typically. An upgraded Collectively characteristic in Samsung Well being allows you to subject run distance challenges to all of your contacts, setting objectives to be the primary to run a selected distance every week. It is an ideal improve on the standard step depend race.

The higher to see (and listen to) you with

When you’ve ever discovered your self in want of the zoom instrument, present in accessibility settings, you will know it is a little bit 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 tug the window round and zoom in as you want.

A handful of further accessibility options are additionally now out there, 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 had Android Central’s Derrek Lee feeling like he was in the future. In spite of everything, connecting your Bluetooth earbuds to a public broadcast seems like such an alien idea for what has at all times been a really private communication customary, however discovering and connecting to an Auracast wasn’t exactly the most user-friendly task.

Fortunately, Samsung’s One UI 8 now allows you to scan a QR code to hook up with an Auracast, one thing that is nearly actually going to change into commonplace as public spots implement the expertise. So lengthy, 50-step technique of yesterday!

DeX is not lifeless

Whereas the Dex for PC app was killed off in One UI 7, Samsung is not accomplished 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 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 simple 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 nice. We do not want massive overhauls each launch. It is simply not obligatory. So, Samsung is concentrated on making One UI 7 even higher with useful options and modifications that appear to make a variety of sense. Even the climate app, seen above, has a extra practical really feel, supplying 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 possibility within the picture carousel on the high. When you’re enrolled, it’s going to 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.

When you come throughout a bug, use the bug reporting tool to let the builders know in order that they will get it mounted within the subsequent beta launch. This helps everybody — not simply you — so customers are inspired to make use of the instrument as typically 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 exhausting to ship on that seven replace promise for the Galaxy S25 sequence so shortly.