The arrival of One UI 8.5 has become one of the most significant updates in recent years for the Galaxy ecosystem. What began as just another testing program has ended up being a massive beta rollout, a growing list of compatible phones, and, above all, the definitive migration of many Galaxy AI features to previous generations.
After several weeks of leaks, shared changelogs on social media, and accumulating beta versions, Samsung's Android 16- based interface is finally approaching its stable release. For users in Europe, and particularly in Spain, this means that the new features introduced on the Galaxy S26 are now arriving on the Galaxy S25, S24, and many of the latest foldable phones, without needing to upgrade.
A gigantic beta program and a stable version already in sight
One UI 8.5 has broken internal records: the public beta program has reached its tenth beta , a rare feat even for Samsung. This latest build is identified by a software version ending in ZZDD and has been progressively released outside of South Korea, reaching markets such as India, Germany, and the United Kingdom—countries that typically serve as early adopters before the rest of Europe.
Leaks from well-known sources like Tarun Vats have provided a glimpse into the changelog of the stable version intended for the Galaxy S25 series. This changelog shows a build with the letter B in the middle of the build number, which points to a specifically European version based on Android 16 , with a rollout in Spain expected approximately one week after the initial launch in South Korea.
The company has needed about ten iterations to iron out internal errors and problems, with a particularly intensive final beta focused on fixing stability and performance issues. This process, which has taken about five months since the initial testing in December, aims to minimize bugs by the time the update begins its stable rollout to the majority of users.
According to various sources, Samsung will begin the stable rollout of One UI 8.5 first on the Galaxy S25 series in South Korea at the end of April, and plans to expand it globally during the first days of May. For Europe, the usual pattern is a slight delay of a few days; in countries like Germany and the UK, the new features are typically released earlier and then gradually rolled out to the rest of the region, including Spain.
Which Galaxy phones are starting to receive One UI 8.5
The update is being rolled out with a clear priority: first the latest flagship models , then foldable phones, and finally the remaining compatible mid-range models . The Galaxy S25 family is the star of the first wave: the S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, and S25 Edge are among the first to receive the stable version of One UI 8.5 with Android 16.
Meanwhile, the beta program has been extended to other flagship devices. The Galaxy S24 has already received beta versions with many of its key features, and the same is true for the latest generation of foldable phones, such as the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 , as well as the immediately preceding generation, the Fold and Flip from the 6 series.
The leaked list also includes the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 , along with some mid-range models and recent tablets, with particular attention to the Galaxy Tab S11 series in Europe. While Samsung hasn't yet released a specific, detailed schedule for each country, everything points to a phased rollout in monthly or bi-weekly waves, following the same update strategy as in previous years.
Beyond specific hardware modules, the company is prioritizing devices with longer support lifecycles, aligning with its promise to offer up to seven years of updates on certain high-end models. This means that, while the initial rollout will focus on the S25 series, One UI 8.5 will gradually arrive on other relatively recent phones as the brand validates its stability across each product line.
In this scheme, the role of markets like Spain or the rest of Western Europe is relevant: they are usually in the second wave of global deployment , right after Korea and some key Asian countries, but before many Latin American regions or other emerging markets.
Galaxy AI: S26 series features coming to more models
The most striking change in One UI 8.5 isn't so much in its aesthetics as in the massive rollout of Galaxy AI to devices that, until now, lagged somewhat behind the Galaxy S26. The update opens the door to several artificial intelligence features that debuted with the latest flagship phones and are now starting to appear on the S25 and S24 series, as well as recent foldable devices.
Among the new features being rolled out to more devices are AI-powered call screening, advanced generative editing in Creative Studio, a more capable Photo Assist, Audio Eraser, and the AI ​​Select contextual interaction tool . These options, initially exclusive to the Galaxy S26 and S26 Ultra, are now being tested in the One UI 8.5 beta for the Galaxy S25 family and other high-end models.
Call Screening, for example, allows a virtual assistant to handle unknown or sales calls , generate a real-time transcript, and alert the user to the type of call before they decide whether to answer it. It's a tool designed to reduce phone spam and avoid unnecessary interruptions, which is especially useful in markets like Europe, where marketing calls are still common.
Creative Studio and Photo Assist leverage generative models to edit photos and videos using text , create custom stickers, and move elements between images quite intuitively. The system interprets user-written instructions (prompts) to adjust scenes, delete objects, or recompose backgrounds, bringing features to mobile devices that previously required third-party applications.
Smart tools for photos, audio, and everyday content
The multimedia aspect is one of the biggest beneficiaries. With One UI 8.5, the audio eraser takes center stage: it allows you to remove or reduce background noise in recordings and videos, and in the latest betas, its compatibility has been expanded to include third-party apps. This means it not only cleans up clips captured with the native camera, but also content generated from other apps, which is useful for creators who publish directly to social media.
AI Select, for its part, offers a quick way to interact with any element on the screen . By selecting an object, text, or specific area, the system displays extra options such as translation, GIF creation, or contextual searches, simplifying tasks that, in practice, many people previously performed by switching between applications.
In terms of visual editing, the integration of these tools is enhanced with shortcuts in the app drawer and the gallery itself. Samsung wants features like Creative Studio to no longer be hidden away in advanced menus, but rather readily available to anyone who opens the Photos app. This decision aims to reduce reliance on external apps for common tasks, from retouching images to generating custom backgrounds from simple text descriptions.
Not all of the AI ​​features of the S26 series are being made available to everyone with One UI 8.5. Some advanced capabilities, such as Now Nudge , priority notification management and summary, and certain camera-related limitations (like specific locks for the 24MP sensor and landscape mode), remain exclusive to the latest models. This is a way of reserving some features for the latest generation of Galaxy devices, even though the general trend is toward making more tools available than in previous cycles.
Integrated document scanner: goodbye to many third-party apps
Beyond AI, One UI 8.5 introduces a very practical addition for everyday use: the native document scanner . Although the ability to capture documents with the camera has been around for years, the experience wasn't always convenient. Taking multiple photos of the same contract or form didn't guarantee that they would be neatly combined into a single PDF, and many users ended up resorting to external applications.
With the new version of the interface, Samsung integrates a scanner directly into the native camera app , allowing users to scan multiple pages and save them in a single file, without complicated intermediate steps. Furthermore, the brand has added a shortcut that can be pinned to the home screen or app drawer, making it as easy to activate scanning as opening any other basic system tool.
Initially, this scanner was exclusive to the Galaxy S26 and S25, but successive betas of One UI 8.5 have brought it to more models. It has already appeared in the Galaxy S24 series, the S25 FE, and the foldable Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip from the 6 and 7 series, always linked to the corresponding beta version. In most cases, however, the feature is not enabled by default: you have to go into the camera settings and enable it manually.
Once set up, the scanner kicks in when the system detects that you're pointing it at a document. The software corrects perspective and contrast , groups pages, and offers the option to export the result as a PDF, making digitizing documents to send by email or save to the cloud considerably less cumbersome than before.
Moderate visual changes and internal performance improvements
Despite the scale of the rollout, One UI 8.5 doesn't bring a radical redesign of the interface. Official release notes and beta versions point to a more conservative approach visually: fine-tuning icons, menus, and animations , without completely altering the aesthetic that users of the One UI skin are already accustomed to.
Among the changes mentioned is a more refined design, with minor modifications to the iconography and the way certain interface elements are displayed. The goal is to modernize without disorienting , preventing users from having to relearn where everything is. On some devices, the transitions and integration of the status and navigation bars have been improved to blend better with the content, resulting in a cleaner feel.
Where a significant portion of the effort seems to have been concentrated is on the internals: bug fixes, improved touch response, and optimization of overall fluidity . In the various test versions, many users have noticed smoother navigation, with less lag when switching between demanding apps, and somewhat more efficient memory management—a key factor in both high-end and more budget-friendly models.
These internal adjustments align with the current market context, where Chinese brands like Xiaomi and OPPO are pushing hard in terms of performance and update speed. For Samsung, maintaining a high pace in this area is almost mandatory if it wants its customers to avoid feeling that their phone is becoming outdated after only a few years.
Given all this context, the arrival of One UI 8.5 can be interpreted as more than just a simple incremental revision of One UI 8. The combination of an unusually long beta, the expansion of Galaxy AI to previous generations, and the appearance of practical features like the document scanner points to an update that, while not promising a major aesthetic change, does enhance the daily experience for those who own a recent Galaxy device in Spain and the rest of Europe.
