Samsung One UI 8.5 - What's New?

Why It Matters

By embedding AI deeper into everyday controls, Samsung aims to differentiate its Android experience, driving user retention and attracting AI‑savvy consumers.

Key Takeaways

• Quick toggles now rearrangeable, resizable, orientation-switchable for customization
• Lock screen adds animated weather and alarm background visuals
• AI-powered Now Nudge suggests calendar events from messages
• Bixby integrates Perplexity AI, improving contextual assistance and conversation history
• Camera introduces Document Scanner PDF export and Horizon Lock video stabilization

Summary

Samsung unveiled One UI 8.5 on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, positioning the update as an AI‑centric evolution rather than a full UI overhaul.

The update adds cosmetic tweaks—rearrangeable quick toggles, animated weather on the lock screen, a larger battery‑usage view, region‑specific screen recording, and a control‑panel shortcut for system‑wide search. On the AI front, the new Now Nudge offers contextual calendar suggestions, Bixby now leverages Perplexity AI for richer answers, AI Select is reachable via a long‑press on the Edge tab, and Brief delivers more personalized feeds.

In practice, reviewers noted Now Nudge’s inconsistency, while Bixby’s conversation‑history panel was reorganized for quicker scanning. The photo editor now accepts natural‑language prompts to add AI‑generated elements, and the AI Audio Eraser can clean background noise in YouTube playback. Camera upgrades include a Document Scanner that exports PDFs, a Virtual Reflector in Expert RAW, Horizon Lock for level video, and customizable focus peaking in Pro Video.

These enhancements tighten Samsung’s ecosystem, boost productivity, and signal a stronger AI push that could narrow the gap with rivals like Apple and Google, especially as One UI 8.5 rolls out to older models.

Original Description

Based on Android 16, One UI 8.5 is Samsung's new interface debuting on the Galaxy S26 smartphones. But what has changed since the One UI 8.0 that we saw on last year's flagships? Here's our side by side comparison.

The video is based on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and S25 Ultra.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:33 Customizable quick toggles

00:44 Lock screen weather

00:55 Alarm weather background

01:04 Reworked battery page

01:11 Partial screen recorder

01:17 Shortcut to system-wide search

01:28 Now nudge

01:41 Bixby improvements

01:56 AI select shortcut

02:11 Improved now brief

02:19 AI photo assist

02:39 Editing changelog

02:47 Screenshot search

02:55 AI audio eraser

03:15 Document scanner

03:24 Virtual reflector

03:32 Horizon lock

03:40 Focus peaking

03:45 Conclusion