The One UI 8.5 beta delay may not be as bad as we feared – and your Galaxy S25 could get it soon

Galaxy S25 One UI 8.5 beta spotted on Samsung servers 

The first One UI 8.5 beta firmware has now been spotted on Samsung's servers, but with a delay. The rumored delay for the Galaxy S26 series launch is likely to have pushed back the beta program as well. Obviously, it's not going to come this month. 

However, its presence on Samsung's servers indicates that the delay isn't going to be as huge, and the South Korean tech giant's plans haven't been disrupted too much. 

First One UI 8.5 beta for Galaxy S25 may come in December

We don't know yet how many regions are going to be granted access to the One UI 8.5 beta. It's possible that the usual markets where Samsung launches these betas, which include the U.S. and Samsung's homeland, may be in the list of regions. Of course, surprises are always possible, but we'll know quite soon anyway. 

One UI 8.5 is the software update that is set to officially launch (not in beta) with the Galaxy S26 trio. Rumor has it that the South Korean giant is working on adding Perplexity AI to One UI 8.5, and more specifically, to Samsung's Bixby. Apparently, the company is planning a full refresh of its digital assistant and a serious upgrade to it. 

Meanwhile, another recent rumor claims that One UI 8.5 may introduce a new way for you to handle notifications. You may be able to set a higher priority to some notifications. When a notification is marked as important, it would reportedly be pushed to the top of the list of notifications so you don't miss it. 

There's reportedly also an adaptive clock feature for your lock screen, which would have customizable fonts and sizing. 

One UI 8.5 and Galaxy S26: will that be exciting enough?

There has been a lot of talk about the upcoming Galaxy S26 series, the phones that are first reportedly going to rock One UI 8.5. Samsung is said to have planned some notable improvements to its flagship trio, including potentially MagSafe-like magnets for real Qi2 charging support and an upgrade to wired charging speeds for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. And there's also reportedly going to be a tweak in the design of the camera island of the phones. 

However, there are also going to be (at least judging by rumors) plenty of things that are also... well, inherited from the previous models. Including the cameras, potentially.

All in all, Samsung seems to have planned some big things for its upcoming devices, but I'm here waiting for something that would surprise me entirely or get me hyped. 

Strangely enough, a revamped digital assistant is not exactly getting me excited... but maybe that's just because Apple failed to deliver when it said it would with Siri, and my expectations about a powerful, context-aware digital assistant have been vaporized. Let's see if Samsung can change things.

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