Early One UI 8.5 leaks already point to Samsung’s next Android skin being a much bigger update than One UI 8. It will pack some notable visual changes and introduce several new features. A new report now suggests One UI 8.5 will be an even bigger upgrade under the hood, as it’s set to be based on the latest Android 16 QPR release.

Like One UI 8, One UI 8.5 will also be based on Android 16. However, Android Authority reports that Samsung will build it on Android 16 QPR2 — the second major quarterly platform release of the OS. The evidence comes from the latest leaked One UI 8.5 firmware, which lists SDK version 3.1 and build ID BP4A.

Google is currently beta testing Android 16 QPR2 for compatible Pixel devices, with the stable build scheduled to arrive in December. Unlike past QPRs, this one will be notable, as Google says it will ship with a minor SDK release and brand-new APIs.

Android manufacturers usually base their custom skins on the initial major release of the OS. As a result, the new features and improvements that Google rolls out in Quarterly Platform Releases rarely reach non-Pixel devices until the next major version of their Android skin rolls out.

For example, Samsung itself based One UI 7 on the initial Android 15 build. Likewise, One UI 8 is based on the initial Android 16 release and not QPR1. Going by past trends, the company could have still based One UI 8.5 on the initial Android 16 release, but it’s not doing so.

Trunk Stable: the secret behind faster Android updates from Google and Samsung

Samsung revealed in July this year that it has adopted the same Trunk Stable development model as Google to roll out Android updates faster. One UI 8.5 being built on Android 16 QPR2 appears to be a direct outcome of that change. In fact, the two companies worked together to achieve this, with Samsung now aiming to keep pace with Google’s release cadence going forward.

So, it’s safe to assume that future One UI versions will be built on the latest stable Android release — even if that happens to be a QPR build.