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Samsung is planning to launch the Android 8.0 Oreo beta program for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus on Tuesday, October 31st, one industry insider said earlier today. The test itself will be held exclusively for users in the United States which isn’t to say that an equivalent program won’t be introduced in the United Kingdom as was the case last year with the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, it’s just that this particular source had no info on that front. Only T-Mobile and Sprint customers will be able to participate in the U.S. and it’s currently unclear why Verizon and AT&T aren’t part of the program. Regarding the largest wireless carrier in the country, it may have been omitted from this year’s beta initiative after its decision to prematurely discontinue the experimental program for Samsung’s Android 7.0 Nougat build in late 2016 which caused some friction between the mobile service provider and Samsung.
The South Korean original equipment manufacturer is said to be planning 7,500 beta spots per smartphone and carrier. The unlocked variant of the Galaxy S8 bearing the model number SM-G950U1 is also said to be encompassed by the program, so long as it’s used on Sprint or T-Mobile’s network. The software package itself will apparently redesign the user interface of the Samsung Experience software suite, the source said, without elaborating on the matter. Flashing the U1 firmware onto a device that isn’t on T-Mobile or Sprint’s network won’t allow users to join the beta program which will only accept submissions sent via the Samsung Members and Samsung+ Android apps.
No word on a similar program for the Galaxy Note 8 has yet made its way online, though the phablet was previously expected to be prioritized in regards to the availability of Android 8.0 Oreo due to being the latest premium offering from the Seoul-based company. One division of Samsung recently confirmed that the next major iteration of Google’s operating system optimized for Galaxy mobile devices is set to launch in early 2018, so a late 2017 beta test would fit into that development timeline. Samsung already started updating some of its Android apps with Oreo support but has yet to share any news on a potential OS beta test in an official capacity.
