Samsung has announced the beta program for its One UI 8.5, allowing those willing to try out some new features. These are pretty small scale on their own, depending on the type of user you are. But to quickly summarise, there’s improvements to content creation, connectivity and security.
On the first one, Samsung says that with One UI 8.5, you “can keep generating new images without interruption with the updated Photo Assist”. Prior to the update, you’ll need to save each iteration when a change is made. You can also get a look at all the changes you’ve made once you’re done. From there, you can choose which changes to keep or discard before saving.
As an aside, there’s also an upgrade to Quick Share that lets it recognise people in photos. If you have your contacts linked, it will also proactively suggest sending those photos to them.
On the connectivity side of things, there’s Audio Broadcast that allows Samsung devices with One UI 8.5 to communicate with each other via Bluetooth LE Audio. Then, via Auracast, you can use your phone device as a mic to transmit audio to other Bluetooth LE devices. Then there’s also Storage Share which allows other Samsung devices to see what’s in your phone’s storage via the My Files file explorer app.
Finally, and probably most impactful, is Failed Authentication Lock. Say someone stole your phone in an unlocked state, and they attempt to access apps that you’ve locked. After failing too many times, your phone with One UI 8.5 will automatically lock itself, sending the unauthorised user back to the lock screen.
For now, the One UI 8.5 beta is only available to the Samsung Galaxy S25 series of phones. And only in select markets of which Malaysia is unfortunately not one. Specifically, the list only includes the US, the UK, Germany, India, Poland, and its home market of Korea.
(Source: Samsung)
