The top three deceptively simple One UI 8.5 features I look forward to

I haven’t personally jumped into the One UI 8.5 beta. That said, I’ll be running the stable update soon enough, whether that happens via a Galaxy S26 upgrade next month or when One UI 8.5 eventually lands on my Galaxy S24+ later this year.

Either way, the changelog is official, and these are the three One UI 8.5 features I’m most excited about, from a smarter Bixby and a clever alarm clock to long-overdue DeX improvements.

I’ll be honest. I’m not a big Bixby user. Still, what Samsung is planning for Bixby in One UI 8.5 sounds far more practical than usual, especially if you want a genuinely hands-free experience.

With One UI 8.5, Bixby becomes more context-aware and can even suggest and change settings based on how you want your phone to behave. Normally, that wouldn’t excite me all that much.

The exception is driving.

As smart as modern Galaxy phones are, I’ve always felt a weird disconnect when trying to use them hands-free in the car. Voice commands rarely feel well integrated, and app control often falls apart.

This One UI 8.5 Bixby update could finally move the needle, at least for a proper driving mode. I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m definitely curious to see how it performs in real-world scenarios.

Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for Samsung’s Weather app. Some people barely open it. I, on the other hand, check it daily. Maybe that’s age creeping in, but I like knowing what the day has in store.

One UI 8.5 isn’t changing the Weather app itself, but it is bringing weather information to alarms, and I’m already sold. You’ll be able to set the weather as your alarm background and see current conditions the moment your alarm goes off.

For me, this sounds like a genuinely pleasant way to start the day, especially when the blinds are still closed. A quick glance at the alarm tells me what’s happening outside before I even get out of bed.

It’s a small feature, sure, but it’s exactly the kind of thoughtful touch I usually enjoy in new updates.

I don’t use Samsung DeX nearly as much as I once did, but I’m still glad to see it getting meaningful upgrades.

In One UI 8.5, DeX will remember window sizes and positions. That’s the sort of quality-of-life improvement that feels obvious in hindsight.

It hasn’t always been there, and I know I would have appreciated it back when I used DeX daily. Even now, it’s enough to make me want to give DeX another proper try and see how it feels with this long-overdue fix.