Samsung Galaxy S25 owners can already try One UI 8.5 right now

Samsung has announced a new beta program that will enable Samsung Galaxy S25 owners to use One UI 8.5 early.

We’re expecting to see One UI 8.5 – which is promising to be a much bigger update than its ‘X.5’ designation suggests – make its full debut alongside the Samsung Galaxy S26 in January.

However, thanks to the freshly announced One UI 8.5 beta program, Samsung Galaxy S25 users are able to get a sneak peek.

What’s in the One UI 8.5 beta?

As we mentioned above, One UI 8.5 is much more than a modest bump over the existing One UI 8.

Samsung reckons that it “fundamentally rethinks how users interact with their devices”, moving away from the usual process of jumping between apps and menus on its smartphones.

Photo Assist 2.0, for example, will allow you to perform multiple types of photo edit in one session, without having to save your progress at every turn.

Quick Share will now recognise faces in images and will make sharing recommendations accordingly. Audio Broadcast will enable Samsung users to communicate with multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously.

With Storage Share, there’ll be a unified storage system that will enable you to access files from your tablets and PCs right there on your phone.

Throw in a more secure, granular more identity verification system, and you’ll hopefully understand what a sweeping upgrade One UI 8.5 is promising to be.

How to get Samsung One UI 8.5 beta

Access to this One UI 8.5 beta program opened on 8 December.

It’s now available to anyone with a Samsung Galaxy S25-series phone in the UK, US, Germany, Korea, India, and Poland.

If you can tick off those requirements, you’ll be able to access the One UI 8.5 beta through the Samsung Members app.

Simple open the app and head to Settings > Software update > Download to get the update.