Samsung rolled out the second beta for One UI 5, which is based on Android 13 on the 25th of August to the Galaxy S22 series. The second beta closely follows the first one that came out in the first week of the same month.
This timeline is a month earlier than last year’s One UI 4 rollout (based on Android 12), and according to a new report from @RoderSuper on Twitter, it seems Samsung users won’t have to wait too long before the company releases the finalized build of One UI 5 to the rest of eligible users.
@RoderSuper claims that the South Korean company will officially roll out the complete One UI 5.0 build to the Galaxy S22 series either on the 17th or 19th of October. The leaker’s claim corroborates the earlier rumours of a full release in October, however, he goes a step further, narrowing it down to two dates.
Should one of the dates turn out to be true, the time difference between when the first One UI 5 beta went live to the finalized One UI 5 build release will be around 10 weeks, which is sufficient for all the minor bugs to be spotted and fixed
Despite the beta and the full release coming to only the Galaxy S22 series at first, the majority of Samsung smartphones released in the past year or so should get the upgrade to Android 13.
Just like last year, the Galaxy foldables should be next to get the Android 13 treatment, followed by the older Galaxy S and Note series then finally the midrange and entry-level devices should get the update last.
Despite Android 13 not having a radical visual change from Android 12, there have been a few key changes and introductions to add more customization options, increase security and also leverage more accessibility features.
For instance, Samsung users running Android 13 will now be able to;
- Stack widgets that are the same size
- Block notifications from certain apps
- Set preferred languages for different apps
- Take quick notes during a call
- Add watermarks to images
Unfortunately for Galaxy S22 users in Kenya, the second beta is only available in India, South Korea, the UK and USA. The second beta introduces many improvements and fixes under the hood, but the notable additions are a Smart Suggestions widget which will suggest apps based on your usage pattern and a new mode which makes it possible for technicians to repair your phone without getting access to your personal stuff.
