Quick Summary
A leak has suggested that Samsung might restore pollen cards to the weather app in One UI 8.5.
However, it's unclear when One UI 8.5 might launch – it might not be until early 2026 with the Samsung Galaxy S26 models.
Samsung is now officially rolling out One UI 8 to a number of devices, but there's been simmering confusion about the removal to a beloved feature from one of Samsung's popular apps. Thankfully, it looks like a correction is coming.
The app concerned is Samsung's Weather service, in particular the pollen count that used to be included in it. This mysteriously vanished in One UI 7, leaving hayfever sufferers to head elsewhere to get pollen tracker information.
However, in a leaked One UI 8.5 build obtained by Android Authority, the pollen cards appear to have returned. That will bring that detail back to Samsung phone owners - as long as the change makes it through to the final build of the software.
This data is pulled from Weather.com and that raises a question over how wide the availability of this feature might be – it could be that not all regions will get the pollen cards, if that service is not available in them.
With the One UI 8 roll-out only recently started, there's no telling when One UI 8.5 might land on phones, but it’s likely the Samsung's newest devices will get it first, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
How about the Samsung Galaxy S26 series?
It's also entirely possible that Samsung won't be pushing One UI 8.5 to devices until the launch of its new family of phones in early 2026. It wouldn't be a surprise if the Galaxy S26 Ultra was the debut device for the next software, introducing a range of new features, before rolling those back to older phones.
That might come as a disappointment for allergy sufferers looking to get that information at their fingertips, as you could be waiting for some time.
Looking forward to Samsung's next-gen devices, it's said that there will be something of a shuffle that sees the Galaxy S26 Ultra as the flagship and the Galaxy S26 Edge replacing the Galaxy S26 Plus. The Galaxy S26 Pro could then be the entry-level device, replacing the current entry-level, without making too many changes.
We expect to hear a lot more about Samsung's plans over the coming months and hopefully some respite for allergy sufferers.
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