Galaxy S22 users in the United States, Germany, and South Korea may now access the open beta version of Samsung’s new One UI 5. This update arrives only days before Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked presentation and a few weeks before the planned release of Android 13. The new One UI 5 beta adds additional customization choices, changes to alerts, and new accessibility & security settings, but otherwise seems to be a minor upgrade, much like the operating system it is based on.
One UI 5 expands upon Android 13’s theming capabilities by providing as many as 16 predefined color themes depending on your wallpaper, in well as 12 more color possibilities for your home screen, icons, as well as quick panels. It also has a new method of stacking widgets of the same size to make the interface seem less crowded.
There are also new accessibility capabilities, such as a magnifier that utilizes the phone’s camera to enlarge images of text and things in the real world and choices for the phone to read the message you type out loud. Several more improvements from Android 13 have been included in One UI 5, as detailed by Samsung. These include updated notification settings that mandate app developers get approval before delivering you alerts. The One UI 5 beta also has a revamped security dashboard that examines your phone for possible vulnerabilities and allows you to select your language of choice on an app-by-app basis.
Samsung touted its early deployment of updates with the introduction of the One UI 4 beta the year before. Samsung has increased the duration between updates, with the release of One UI 4 beta occurring in August 2021 instead of September 2021. Users may sign up for the One UI 5 beta using the Samsung Members app, much as with prior versions of Samsung’s user interface.
As of right now, S22 smartphones in the United States, Germany, and South Korea are the only ones that can access the One UI 5 beta, but Samsung has plans to expand the beta to new devices and locations in the near future. At Samsung’s Unpacked event on August 10th, where the company is expected to unveil many new products, such as the Galaxy Z Flip 4, Z Fold 4, Galaxy Watch 5, and Galaxy Buds Pro 2, we may get a better idea of what One UI 5 has to provide.
