A One UI 8 leak purports a key feature expansion and 'minor' adjustments

What you need to know

• Rumors of an "early preview" for Samsung's One UI 8 have surfaced, alleging some changes users may see.
• The first involves the potential expansion of One UI 7's Now Brief to older devices, like Samsung's 2024 foldables.
• Other changes involved slight design tweaks to the Gallery and Files Manager apps.
• Rumors claim Samsung has already entered "deep testing" for One UI 8 on the Galaxy S25 as the company tries to keep pace with Google's early Android 16.

Early interest for Samsung's next One UI version mounts as leaks purport feature expansions and redesigns.

X tipster Tarun Vats highlighted a few alleged One UI 8 leaks discovered by SmartPrix. The publication's supposed "early preview" brought word that One UI 7's Now Brief will "no longer be a Galaxy S25 exclusive," per Vats on X. The post states the "current build" for One UI 8 contains this feature, and it's apparent availability for other "high-end models," like the Galaxy Z Flip 6, Fold 6, and more.

The snapshots suggest Now Brief will continue to incorporate a range of Samsung's apps for personalized suggestions. The leaked photo shows apps like Smart Home, battery status, YouTube Shorts, and Digital Wellbeing, among others.

Slight Reworks

Aside from a feature expansion, the publication's supposed hands-on suggests Samsung is working on a few "visual tweaks." For now, these changes were spotted in the Gallery and Files Manager apps. Regarding the former, the early build shows a blurred, transparent design for the Gallery's sub-menu. Additionally, the provided icons are no longer simple icons laid atop a gray background.

It seems Samsung will give these icons their own bubbles on the top row while giving pill-shaped icons to options like Shared Albums, Clean Out, Trash, and Settings.

The Files Manager is altering its main view. The post claims users could see its categories stacked in more rectangular boxes instead of square. Moreover, beneath that, Samsung's early test showed a slightly refined "recently added" section. The Files Manager may state how many files you've recently added in a simple carousel for your viewing pleasure.

Trail of Rumors

Interestingly, this isn't the first time we've heard about the Now Brief potentially arriving for older phones and foldables. A tipster discovered remnants of its code available in the One UI 7 beta code for the Galaxy S24, as well as code for the Flip 6 and Fold 6. While there's hope, we need to remember Samsung's interview with its EVP and head of Framework R&D, Sally, who said owners of past-gen devices shouldn't expect every One UI 7 feature.

Aside from that, rumors have claimed Samsung may jump from One UI 7 right into One UI 8, considering how much sooner Android 16 is arriving. Those speculations were seemingly bolstered as Samsung was supposedly caught with a One UI 8 test build for the Galaxy S25. Evidence of this build was reportedly spotted on Samsung's internal servers for the latest smartphone.

Samsung itself spoke about this topic in March, saying users shouldn't get too excited. The company stated what users are hearing whispers about likely involve early test builds (which we've seen repeatedly) and only indicate the "early stages" of development. As of now, there's no clue when One UI 8 could arrive; however, Google is planning to rollout Android 16 in Q2 2025.