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With the Samsung Unpacked hardware launch out of the way, Samsung is turning its eyes on software, but it looks like the company is experiencing issues. Samsung’s One UI 6 beta program is finally going live. It’s based onAndroid 14and available only on theSamsung Galaxy S23, and it only comes following a back and forth for weeks with the company pulling multiple earlier announcements.
Samsung hasreleased a statementon the launch once again, and many of our tipsters additionally report that they can download the beta update through the Samsung Members app, which is the company’s official route to get in on beta releases. While the One UI beta program itself is available in a few countries, the One UI 6 beta is only coming to the Germany, South Korea, and the US for now.
This isn’t the first time that Samsung published and then retracted its One UI 6 announcement.Samsung Germany inadvertently leaked itearlier this month already, followed by another published and retracted announcement just a few days ago. The company previously said that the rollout was halted indefinitely.
Based on the now-deleted press release, the new software offers all the goodies that Google is making available in Android 14 itself, like underlying support for a better system share sheet, more security options that will protect you from malware abusing accessibility services, and regional per-app preferences.
Samsung adds a ton of its own customizations to the new release. The company highlights a simplified design that’s supposed to bring a more modern look thanks to a new default font and a redesigned quick settings panel. It’s more in line with the pill-shaped redesign that Google introduced with Android 12, which Samsung only uses for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth toggles when the quick settings are expanded. Everything else is still left with space-saving circular shape.
Samsung is also making One UI more customizable with version 6, allowing you to set different lock screens to match the current Mode or Routine you’ve selected — quite similar to what Apple does on iOS. A new customizable camera widget makes it possible to preselect your preferred camera mode and saving location, making it less likely that you will miss the right moment to hit the shutter while fiddling with settings. Meanwhile, Samsung Keyboard gains support for new emoji.
We will likely see a few betas before the stable release, with testers getting a chance to share feedback and report bugs. “Every iteration of One UI responds to the needs of our user community, and we look forward to user feedback on One UI 6 as we create a richer, more intuitive experience for all," said Janghyun Yoon, Vice President and software head of Samsung’s Mobile eXperience (MX) division.
The stable One UI 6 update should start hitting Samsung phones sometime after Google releases Android 14 on its own phones, which we expect to happen as soon as mid-August (based on Android 13’s launch timing last year).
UPDATE: 2025-06-20 03:18 EST BY MANUEL VONAU
One UI 6 is rolling out for real this time
We’ve updated the article to reflect that Samsung Galaxy S23 owners report that they are now able to download the beta release. The article previously stated that Samsung has postponed the rollout indefinitely.
