What you need to know
- Samsung has officially announced the anticipated One UI 5 open beta program.
- After an apparent delay, the betas are now official for the Galaxy S22 series.
- With several countries at launch, Samsung plans to expand to other countries in the coming months.
Samsung has finally announced its much anticipated One UI 5 open beta program. It has already begun rolling out to the Galaxy S22 series in select countries without much fanfare from Samsung outside of a developer page and some community posts in Germany and Korea. However, over the weekend, Samsung released a new blog post formally announcing the beta.
Many Galaxy fans and enthusiasts were expecting the rollout in the third week of July, although July came and went without so much as a hint. Nonetheless, it is available now and promises to bring new customization features, security, and accessibility features.
"We know our users crave the ability to create their own individual mobile experience and we're constantly looking to improve One UI to give people greater control and more options," says Janghyun Yoon, executive vice president and head of the Software Platform Team at Samsung's Mobile eXperience (MX) Business. "We're excited to offer early access to all the new customizable features that come with One UI 5 as part of an open beta and look forward to incorporating user feedback to develop a better and more meaningful experience for everyone."
For those unaware, the One UI 5 is based on the latest Android 13 and further comprises Samsung's effort to bring an ultimate user experience compared to its previous One UI versions.
Samsung highlights customization options that include new color themes across the UI involving up to 16 presets for wallpapers, with 12 additional color options for home screens and icons.
Widgets are said to be coming with customization options as well. Several can be stacked in a location with the new One UI 5 beta, saving space on the home screen. The latest beta further brings reorganized menus for sounds and vibration settings. This move is to make the process of setting ringtones and notification alerts hassle-free.
Multilingual users are also in for a treat with the new One UI 5 beta, as it brings an option to set the preferred language for different apps through Settings, one of the highlight features Google is bringing to Android 13.
To capture closer shots more swiftly, Samsung is adding a new zoom bar to quickly zoom in and take a picture. Additionally, the camera interface adds new icons for Pro and Pro video modes, helping Galaxy owners to capture high-quality photos and videos by offering guidance.
The other miscellaneous features on One UI 5 beta include a new dashboard that allows users to glance at the phone's security status — like spotting a security issue and providing a resolution to fix them instantaneously. The beta also includes new accessibility features like an improved Magnifier feature and different types of spoken assistance that can consist of audio description videos, for instance.
As many on the beta have pointed out, there is a long list of changes included in the beta.
While the rollout has just begun to some of the best Android smartphones that Samsung released this year. The initial rollout involves several countries, including the U.S., Germany, and South Korea, with more to follow in the coming months, Samsung suggests. The company assures more features will be added to the beta program in the coming months.
