Samsung surprised us all this week by releasing the One UI 8 beta for the Galaxy S25 series, which is based on Android 16. Following the messy rollout of One UI 7 and Samsung’s track record of launching betas after Google has finalized a stable Android update, the arrival of One UI 8 has been a pleasant surprise. There are some welcome changes, from improvements to alarm groups to better support for older Galaxy Buds.
What’s more surprising is that Samsung’s version of Android 16 is more feature-complete than Google’s, with two of the main additions everyone is looking forward to already working in One UI 8.