One UI 8.5 on Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: The biggest changes you’ll notice

One UI 8.5 is the version of Samsung's One UI software that ships with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, layered over Android to control how the phone looks, feels, and behaves.

This release brings a set of changes you start to notice the moment you turn the phone on. Some are visual: a redesigned Quick Panel, a cleaner settings menu, more vibrant app icons, and softer transitions throughout the interface.

Others are functional, with Galaxy AI^[1] features extended into more parts of the day. Here are the biggest changes worth knowing about on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.

The most noticeable One UI 8.5 changes on the Galaxy S26 Ultra:

The Quick Panel is one of the first things you interact with after picking up the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and One UI 8.5 redesigns it completely. Layout, customisation, and behaviour have all changed.

Previously, the Quick Panel used fixed-size toggles arranged in a set grid. In One UI 8.5, you can resize toggles freely, reorder them however you want, and remove anything you do not use; toggles you removed can be added back from a separate list of available controls.

This gives you much more flexibility to shape the layout around your own habits. The Galaxy S26 Ultra also adds a Privacy Display^[6] toggle here so you can use it to quickly make the screen’s content visible only to you.

One UI 8.5 brings a refreshed visual language across the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The settings menu has been cleaned up. It has fewer subheadings, a tidier layout, and a search bar positioned at the bottom of the screen for easier one-handed reach.

The transitions when scrolling have also been softened: where the previous design had a sharp cutoff at the top and bottom of menus, One UI 8.5 uses a gentle blur that extends the content to the edges of the screen.

The change extends into the app icons, which now have more depth and colour. In-app, floating menus now sit above content rather than docking into a hard bar at the bottom of the screen. Apps like Gallery, Phone, and My Files all reflect this change. None of these are functional revolutions, but together they make the interface feel more polished and modern, and you notice the difference immediately.

Samsung has completely overhauled Photo Assist on the Galaxy S26 Ultra with One UI 8.5. The headline addition is the Create tab, which lets you describe what you want to change in a photo using voice and text prompts.

Where the previous version let you sketch a change onto an image, the Create tab understands written instructions and changes colours, swaps objects, or adds new elements to a scene based on what you type.

Photo Assist also now keeps an edit history, so you can step back through changes if you want to try something different. The Style tool, which previously focused on faces and people, now works on any photo and can transform images into styles such as pop art, comic, watercolour, and 3D cartoon.

A new on-device processing toggle lets you run object removal entirely on the Galaxy S26 Ultra without sending data to the cloud.

Creative Studio is a new Galaxy AI app on the Galaxy S26 Ultra in One UI 8.5. Where Photo Assist edits photos you already have, Creative Studio generates new visuals from scratch using text prompts.

You can use it to create wallpapers, stickers, greeting cards, profile cards, and invitation cards based on what you describe.

Creative Studio can also use an existing photo as inspiration for the image it generates, useful when you want a wallpaper or card that builds on something specific.

The app is integrated into Samsung Notes, so you can generate a sticker or card and drop it directly into a note without switching apps.

Now Brief is a Galaxy AI daily summary that appears on the Galaxy S26 Ultra each morning. A standard calendar view shows only what you enter yourself. Now Brief automatically gathers information from across multiple apps — calendar events, meeting times, reservations, weather, and more — into a single overview, without you adding any of it manually.

On One UI 8.5, it also surfaces details that arrived through your messages — a reservation time mentioned in a chat, for example — not just events you scheduled yourself.

Now Brief learns your habits over time, so the information it surfaces becomes more relevant the more you use it. For people managing busy schedules across work, family, or travel, it reduces the number of apps you need to open in the morning to get a sense of what is coming up.

Audio Eraser on the Galaxy S26 Ultra in One UI 8.5 expands to third-party apps. Previously, Audio Eraser worked on videos you had recorded yourself; now it works in real time while watching videos in supported apps like YouTube, Netflix, and Instagram. The six types of sound it can detect and reduce are voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise.

To use Audio Eraser while watching a video, swipe down to open the Quick Panel and tap the Audio Eraser toggle. A noise reduction slider and a Voice Focus toggle let you adjust how aggressively background sound is filtered and how much dialogue is boosted.

It makes a noticeable difference on sports clips, concert footage, and any video where background sound makes voices harder to follow.

Quick Share^[7] is Samsung's file-sharing feature, and One UI 8.5 makes it cross-platform for the first time. With the Share with Apple devices toggle turned on in Quick Share settings, the Galaxy S26 Ultra can send files to, and receive files from, nearby Apple devices — no third-party app or cloud service required.

Sharing works in both directions: nearby Apple devices appear in the Galaxy S26 Ultra's share sheet alongside Galaxy devices, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra appears as a target on Apple devices. For anyone moving files across both ecosystems, this removes a long-standing friction point between phones, tablets, and laptops.

Notification Highlights has two functions. First, it summarises long chat notifications and busy group threads into a shorter version, so you can see what a conversation is about at a glance. Second, it learns which notifications you tend to check first and moves the most relevant ones to the top of your panel over time.

You can enable Notification Highlights from Settings > Galaxy AI > Notification Highlights. It takes a few days of normal use before the prioritisation becomes accurate, but once it has learned your patterns, the notification panel becomes a noticeably more useful daily tool.

Is One UI 8.5 available on the Galaxy S26 Ultra?

Yes, it ships preinstalled on the Galaxy S26 Ultra

Is One UI 8.5 a major update?

It is a substantial one. The biggest changes are a redesigned Quick Panel, a refreshed visual design, an overhauled Photo Assist, the new Creative Studio app, and wider Galaxy AI features such as Now Brief and Audio Eraser.

Do you need to relearn how to use the phone?

No. The changes sit alongside the familiar One UI experience and appear in everyday use rather than replacing it.

Overall, One UI 8.5 shifts the Galaxy S26 Ultra experience in one direction: a more customisable interface, with Galaxy AI woven into more everyday moments. In practice, the tasks you repeat most — editing photos, clearing notifications, watching videos, checking your morning schedule — each take a little less effort than before.

None of this requires learning a new way to use the phone. The changes sit alongside the familiar One UI experience and show up in everyday use, from the first swipe of the Quick Panel to the first time you open Photo Assist in the Gallery.

^{[1] Galaxy AI: Samsung account login is required for certain AI features.}

^{[2] Photo Assist: Requires network connection and Samsung account login. A visible watermark is overlaid on the saved image to indicate it was generated by Galaxy AI. Accuracy of output not guaranteed.}

^{[3] Creative Studio: Requires network connection and Samsung account login. Accuracy of output not guaranteed.}

^{[4] Now Brief: Samsung account login and network connection required.}

^{[5] Audio Eraser: Samsung account login required. Six types of sound can be detected; voices, music, wind, nature, crowd and noise. Results may vary depending on audio source & condition of the video. Network connection required to be used on supported apps.}

^{[6] Privacy Display: Requires manual activation in settings to function. Privacy Display feature is not AI-powered.}

^{[7] Quick Share can be compatible with Android 6 (M OS) or higher devices, Chromebook, and some Windows devices. Quick Share between Galaxy devices requires smartphones and tablets with One UI 2.1 or above, and PCs running Windows 10 or later.}