One UI 8.5 is bringing a visual change to app icons

Samsung introduced brand-new iconography with One UI 7.0, featuring gradient colours for stock app icons for a fresher look. While One UI 8.0 didn’t bring any changes to the design of app icons, Samsung plans to introduce a visual change with One UI 8.5.

Internal builds of One UI 8.5 were leaked recently, and we reported several changes that we noticed. In the newest leaked build, we noticed that Samsung has made app icons look more three-dimensional with the use of shadow and curves. However, this change isn't visible for all app icons in the build we have.

You can see the differences between the design of app icons in One UI 8.0 and One UI 8.5. The earlier design is flatter, while the newer design maintains gradient colors from previous versions of One UI.

As you can see in the image below, this 3D appearance is coming to stock app icons as well as third-party app icons. Since this is an early build of One UI 8.5, the new look hasn't been applied to all stock and third-party apps. Moreover, we can't say if Samsung will opt for this look for sure, as it might be just experimenting with it.

Samsung is also introducing a refreshed design language for stock apps, featuring a compact, pill-shaped tab bar at the bottom of the screen. While One UI 7.0 added labels for tab icons, Samsung is removing this text with One UI 8.5. This new software is currently in development and will be available with the Galaxy S26 series early next year.