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Through a post on Twitter, Samsung Mobile UK has announced the launch of its public Marshmallow beta-test program for the Galaxy S6 in the United Kingdom. Interested users will need to create a Samsung Account via a link tweeted by @SamsungMobileUK, and then download and install the Galaxy Care app from the Google Play Store. Thereafter, you’ll need to sign-up to be a beta-tester, by completing the ‘Galaxy Beta Program’ registration process. It isn’t immediately clear however as to how many beta-testers Samsung is looking for. There’s also no indication if just signing up is enough to guarantee a place in the company’s beta tester lineup, or if Samsung will go through all applications individually to find suitable candidates in some way.
Just earlier this week, Samsung launched this exact program in its home base of South Korea, but the company’s Netherlands-based unit had categorically claimed that there’s no immediate plan to roll out the program in Europe, according to SamMobile. Turns out that assertion wasn’t exactly spot-on. One thing to note here however, is that while the program running in South Korea is for both the Galaxy S6 and the S6 Edge, whereas the UK program is only inviting testers for the Galaxy S6. It remains to be seen whether the scope of the program will be expanded at a later date to include the S6 Edge as well, or if it stays limited to the S6 only. There’s also no word on whether owners of the Galaxy Note 5 and the S6 Edge+ will have the opportunity to play volunteer beta-testers as well.
It remains to be seen how this whole public beta-test goes, as the success of the program will be measured by how many bugs actually get reported by the large army of people, many of whom are likely to take their job as volunteer beta-testers very seriously. This program will hopefully allow the company to get a more comprehensive feedback before the Marshmallow ROM for the Galaxy S6 transitions from ‘Beta’ to ‘Stable’, and gets rolled out to millions of users. There’s no ETA just as yet for the rollout of the update in its stable form, but seeing as the beta-testing phase will reportedly go on till the 18th of next month in South Korea, it seems unlikely that the update will go live anytime soon – anywhere in the world.