Samsung released the first One UI beta in December 2025. The company has now pushed the third update for One UI 8.5 (Android 16 QPR2) on the Galaxy S25 series.
Beta 3, also known as ZZA3, is part of the brand's ongoing stabilization process ahead of the Galaxy S26 series launch. The phone will ship with One UI 8.5 out of the box.
ZZA3 is here to fix threats to your Galaxy experience
As announced by popular leaker @tarunvats33 on X, One UI 8.5 beta 3 focuses on bug fixes and performance issues that were reported in earlier builds. Users were seeing the lock screen clock render incorrectly. There were also problems inside the Phone app, specifically with favorites.
Contacts marked as favorites weren’t consistently appearing or behaving as expected, which points to a database or UI sync issue rather than missing data.
Another issue affected Now Briefing, which is Samsung’s contextual summary feature. In some cases, it simply didn’t show up at all, even when it was enabled. In the Gallery app, users also reported lag when using Live Effects.
The battery drain problem was tied to specific apps. Finally, Samsung tweaked the widget addition screen, where the search button wasn’t very visible or intuitive.
The software’s size is about 1.26GB and the rollout is currently limited to select regions, specifically South Korea, Germany, the UK, and India. Users in India are receiving the same ZZA3 build, but it’s their second update. It seems that Samsung started the program in the country later than in other regions.
Although it covers the US, the update is yet to reach the region. But wider availability is expected soon. You can join the program through the Samsung Members app.
It's now harder to ignore family
Besides fixes, the One UI 8.5 beta software introduces a more context-aware layer to Samsung’s software, where the system now responds to how you live.
The update expands Now Brief and Now Bar to the point where you can now prompt social actions. Greet your family is a new feature that will remind you to check in with your family if you haven’t contacted them in a while. It even shows how many days it’s been since your last interaction.
The leak originally surfaced from an X user with the username @nirmalsri7. His post shows Now Brief prompting him to reach out to a contact after not contacting them for 26 days. Another user shared how he hadn't contacted his mother for 22 days.
It's unclear how exactly the feature can intelligently identify who is family and who isn't. But it's interesting enough to anticipate. Guilt-tripping as a feature is not something you see everyday.
At the same time, it raises privacy concerns where Samsung may be inferring relationships and monitoring communication patterns over time. The feature could monitor call frequency, message history, relationship tags, or contextual clues, and other sensitive information.
One UI 8.5 adds other small but meaningful quality-of-life touches, like a torch indicator in the Now Bar, stronger power-saving controls, and a system-level option to block apps that abuse ads.
