A Fully Customizable Samsung Quick Panel at Last
One UI 8.5 delivers the biggest overhaul to the Samsung Quick Panel in years, turning what used to be a rigid control center into a canvas you can truly personalize. The update strips away most previous restrictions, allowing you to drag, resize, and remove almost any slider, toggle, or widget. Even key interface elements such as the media player, brightness, and volume sliders can now be shrunk or expanded, and you can switch between standard horizontal sliders and vertical layouts. In contrast, One UI 8.0 only let users reorder certain sections and kept tiles like Smart View and Device Control locked in place. With One UI 8.5 features focused on flexibility, you can even clear out every tile for a minimalist, blank layout, tailoring the Quick Panel to match how you actually use your phone.
AirDrop Support Makes Sharing with Apple Devices Effortless
One UI 8.5 quietly fixes one of the most frustrating problems in mixed-device households: clunky file transfers between Samsung phones and Apple hardware. Samsung’s Quick Share is now compatible with Apple’s AirDrop, so you can send photos, videos, and documents to Apple devices with just a few taps. Instead of falling back on chat apps, email, or cloud links, users can rely on direct device-to-device transfers that feel much closer to a native ecosystem experience. This upgrade positions AirDrop support as one of the most practical One UI 8.5 features, especially for users who regularly move files between platforms. While Samsung hasn’t radically changed the interface for Quick Share, the expanded compatibility removes a longstanding barrier and makes cross-platform collaboration—whether for work, school, or family sharing—significantly more seamless than before.
New Accessibility Settings That Dim Strobing Videos
Accessibility takes a meaningful step forward in One UI 8.5 with a new option designed for people sensitive to flashing lights and strobing effects. When enabled, this setting automatically dims videos that contain intense flashes, making them more comfortable and safer to watch. The feature lives within the accessibility settings rather than being front and center, and it currently does not appear via the redesigned Settings search, so users must navigate to it manually. Samsung notes that the dimming behavior may not work in every app or for all types of video content, reflecting technical limitations in how different apps render video. Another important caveat: the setting does not sync across your Samsung ecosystem. If you own multiple Galaxy devices running One UI 8.5, you’ll need to toggle the dim strobing option on individually for each one you want protected.
Modern Interactive Wallpapers Refresh the Lock Screen Experience
Samsung’s long-running Graphical wallpapers finally get a true modernization in One UI 8.5. The old static collection introduced back in One UI 5 has been revamped into a set of interactive wallpapers, now expanded to eight designs with two new additions. Instead of being preloaded, each wallpaper is downloadable on demand, saving storage space and allowing you to uninstall designs you don’t use. The key upgrade is interactivity: on the lock screen, wallpapers respond to motion and touch. Some use parallax effects that shift with the phone’s sensors, while others, like the tennis and new basketball courts, animate elements such as bouncing balls when you tap. On the home screen, these remain static to preserve performance and battery. Together with interactive wallpapers and the AI-powered Creative Studio, One UI 8.5 gives Samsung users a fresher, more dynamic visual identity without overwhelming the interface.
What About Video Filters and Other One UI 8.5 Tweaks?
Beyond headline upgrades, One UI 8.5 brings a range of subtle tweaks that change how users interact with media. Some owners have noticed that certain built-in video filters and effects appear to be missing or relocated after the update, prompting confusion about whether Samsung has removed them entirely. While the core video editing experience remains intact, users may need to rely on workarounds—such as third-party apps or alternative filter paths within Samsung’s gallery tools—until they adjust to the new layout. At the same time, Galaxy AI improvements like call screening and enhanced Photo Assist are expanding on-device intelligence for compatible models, making everyday tasks smoother. Taken together with the revamped Samsung Quick Panel, AirDrop support, accessibility settings, and interactive wallpapers, these changes show that One UI 8.5 is more than a maintenance release; it’s a thoughtful refinement of how Samsung users customize, share, and consume content.
