What you need to know
- Samsung has officially started rolling out the first beta version of One UI 5 based on Android 13.
- The update is currently available to Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra owners in Germany and South Korea.
- It is not clear when the beta program will become available in more regions.
With the onset of summer, it means we’re getting a lot closer to the final release of Android 13. Google has reached a platform stabilization point for its Pixel devices, which is a small piece of the puzzle, and now Samsung is starting to work with One UI 5 beta.
Samsung has started rolling out its version of Android 13 via the One UI 5 beta program in Germany (via SamMobile) The country of the company is South Korea. According to the screenshots of the software update page, the first beta build of One UI 5 has a version number S90xBXXU2ZHV4. Samsung has yet to share the details of what Android 13 will bring to some of Samsung’s best phones.
However, these screenshots confirm changes such as Optical Character Recognition, which can essentially pull text from an image that can then be shared. It’s similar to Google Lens and Apple’s Live Text, which debuted alongside iOS 15.
According to the Samsung Germany support page (Opens in a new tab) (Translated via Google Translate) For One UI 5 beta, this version is currently limited to Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and S22 Ultra. This means that owners of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and older devices will have to wait a little longer before getting the latest version of Android.
As with almost every shareware program, some features don’t work properly. This is also true with One UI 5 beta. As Samsung says, “Touchless payments, such as Samsung Pay or Google Pay, are not likely to work with the beta version. In addition, some functionality of third-party apps may not be fully available.”
We’re sure to learn more about the upcoming changes to Samsung’s software over the next few days. With the launch of Samsung Unpacked next week, it is also possible that Samsung will officially present the next version of its software during the event.
If you want to prepare for the One UI 5 beta program to get here in the US, you will first need to download the Samsung Members app. Once available, this is the required app to sign up for the program, but we don’t expect this to be a wide release, at least to start with. And as always, make sure to backup all your data as there is a chance your phone may not work properly when using a shareware program.