Why Samsung One UI Keeps Getting Better
If you own a Samsung Galaxy phone, you already know the feeling — a software update drops, and suddenly your phone feels like an entirely different device.
That is not an accident. Samsung’s One UI skin has quietly become one of the most feature-rich Android experiences, with 2025 and 2026 being eventful years for the platform.
We have seen One UI 7 shake up the design language, One UI 8 double down on Galaxy AI tools, and now One UI 8.5 arrives as a sweeping update that brings a visual overhaul, smarter AI features, and new cross-platform sharing to millions of Galaxy devices.
In this article, we break down the seven Samsung One UI features that genuinely matter—whether you are running the latest Galaxy S25 or holding on to a solid Galaxy S22.
1. Ambient Design, A Fresh Look Across the Whole Interface
One UI 8.5’s Biggest Visual Upgrade
Ambient Design, introduced in One UI 8.5, brings a blur-based visual refresh, replacing older interface elements with frosted layers and depth effects, for a softer, more cohesive feel.
Day to day, this means core interactions like quick settings, notifications, and volume controls feel smoother and more consistent, making the interface easier to navigate.
Samsung also moved search bars in most of its native apps to the bottom of the screen, making one-handed use noticeably more comfortable—a small tweak that makes a big difference on a large-screen device like the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
This design refinement, first shipped pre-installed on the Galaxy S26 series, is now rolling out to older devices, including the Galaxy S24 and S23 families.
2. Galaxy AI Call Screening, Let Bixby Answer First
One UI 8.5 includes its most practical AI addition.
Spam calls are one of life’s genuinely annoying problems, and Samsung has built a practical answer into One UI 8.5. Call Screening uses Bixby to automatically pick up calls from unknown numbers on your behalf.
It asks the caller who they are and why they are calling, and shows you a live transcript of the conversation on your screen in real-time.
You watch everything unfold without committing to the call. If it turns out to be your dentist confirming an appointment, you can jump in. If it is a scam, you dismiss it without ever having said a word.
You can also set the feature to screen all unknown numbers automatically and review the transcripts later at your own pace.
To switch it on, head to the Phone app, tap Settings, and look for Call Screening. This feature debuted on the Galaxy S26 series and is now being distributed to the Galaxy S25, S24, and older flagships as part of the One UI 8.5 stable rollout.
3. Creative Studio, Generate Art, Stickers, and Wallpapers
On-Device Generative AI for Everyone
Creative Studio is one of the more genuinely fun additions in recent Samsung One UI updates. Rather than being buried inside the Gallery app, it now lives as a standalone app on your home screen, and what it can do is fairly impressive.
From a simple text prompt or rough sketch, you can generate original wallpapers, custom sticker sets, profile images, and greeting cards. Want a sticker of your dog rendered in a watercolor style? Describe it, and the Creative Studio generates it on-device using local AI. The stickers you create can be added directly to the Samsung keyboard and shared with contacts.
There is also a more practical side to the app. You can remove unwanted objects from photos, swap clothing in images, or blend elements from two different photos into one seamless composition. Samsung has been careful to keep sensitive images secure, allowing you to store them in a private album protected by fingerprint access. For anyone who edits photos often, this is a meaningful upgrade over what was available even a year ago.
4. Real-Time Audio Eraser, Clear Sound Everywhere
A One UI 8 Feature That Got a Major Upgrade
Audio Eraser is not a new feature — it was available in earlier One UI versions, but only for videos you had already recorded and stored in the Gallery app. One UI 8.5 changed that in a meaningful way. The feature now works in real time across third-party apps, including YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Netflix.
Watching a video on YouTube, and the background noise from a crowd is drowning out the speaker? Audio Eraser can isolate voices and suppress that noise while you watch. You can even access a voice focus toggle and a strength slider directly from your Quick Panel, giving you on-the-fly control without diving into settings.
For people who frequently take calls in noisy environments, attend virtual meetings from busy cafes, or simply want cleaner audio during content playback, this system-wide version of Audio Eraser is one of the most genuinely useful things One UI 8.5 adds. Samsung first introduced this functionality with the Galaxy S26 and is now extending it broadly through this update.
5. Agentic Bixby, A Smarter Assistant That Actually Helps
How One UI 8 and 8.5 Rebuilt Samsung’s AI Core
Bixby has had a complicated reputation. For years, it was the Samsung feature that most users found themselves disabling within the first week. One UI 8 and One UI 8.5 together represent the most significant rebuild Bixby has received, and the results are noticeably better.
The rebuilt assistant now functions as what Samsung calls an Agentic AI. That means it can handle multi-step tasks that span multiple apps without you needing to orchestrate each individual step. Say something like ‘find a recent photo of my dog and email it to Amara,’ and Bixby will open the gallery, identify the photo based on context, compose the email, and send it—all from a single instruction.
Read this: Top Features of Samsung One UI 8.5: Next‑Gen Mobile Interface
Bixby also now retains conversation history, so you can ask follow-up questions without repeating yourself. It also understands loose, natural phrasing instead of requiring precise commands, and it is powered in part by Perplexity’s search model, which significantly improves the quality of information-based queries. Samsung Internet, recently rebranded as Samsung Browser, also gained an Ask AI feature as part of this wave of updates.
6. Photo Assist, Edit Photos with Plain Language
Galaxy AI Meets Everyday Photo Editing
Photo editing on phones has typically required knowing your way around sliders and layer menus. Samsung’s Photo Assist, refined significantly across One UI 8 and 8.5, takes a different approach—you describe what you want, and Galaxy AI handles the actual editing.
Tell it to remove a person from the background, change the color of an object, add something to the frame, or swap elements between two different photos. The feature works through natural language input, so there is no learning curve. You tap on the image, type or speak your instruction, and the AI applies the edit.
What sets Photo Assist apart from similar tools on competing platforms is that Samsung performs a significant portion of this processing on-device. This keeps your photos private — they are not being sent to a server for editing — and makes the feature available even without a stable internet connection. The image blending capability in particular has attracted attention from users who previously relied on third-party apps for this kind of creative work.
7. AirDrop via Quick Share, Samsung Finally Talks to iPhones
One UI 8.5’s Cross-Platform Game Changer
If you have ever tried to share a file between a Samsung Galaxy phone and an iPhone, you know how frustrating it can be. One UI 8.5 addresses this directly with built-in AirDrop support through Quick Share, Samsung’s native file-sharing tool.
A new ‘Share with Apple devices’ toggle appears in your Quick Share settings once you update. From that point, you can send files directly to iPhones, iPads, and Macs without installing any third-party app. No AirDrop workarounds, no emailed links, no Bluetooth fumbling. Samsung Galaxy devices and Apple devices simply appear in each other’s sharing menus.
This works on the Galaxy S22 series and newer flagships, as well as the Galaxy A36. It is one of those features that sounds straightforward but represents a genuine shift in how Android and iOS devices can coexist in the same home or workplace. For anyone who works across both platforms, this alone might be reason enough to update.
Which Devices Are Getting These Samsung One UI Features?
One UI 8.5 began its stable rollout on May 6, 2026, starting in South Korea with the Galaxy S25 series. The global rollout expanded on May 11 to cover Europe, North America, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Here is a general sense of who gets what:
- Galaxy S26 series — shipped with One UI 8.5 pre-installed in March 2026
- Galaxy S25, Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7 — first wave of stable update, early May 2026
- Galaxy S24 series, Z Fold 6, Z Flip 6, Tab S11 — second wave, mid-May 2026
- Galaxy S23 and S22 series — second wave, rolling out through May and June 2026
- Galaxy A56, A55, A54, A36, A35, A34—receiving One UI 8.5 with a lighter feature set called Awesome Intelligence
It is worth noting that not every feature lands on every device. The hardware-level Privacy Display, for example, is exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Mid-range Galaxy A-series phones receive a curated version of the Galaxy AI suite rather than the full flagship experience. Always check Samsung’s official support page for your specific model if you are unsure about feature availability.
Conclusion
The combination of ambient design, real-world AI tools like call screening and audio eraser, and the long-overdue AirDrop integration makes One UI 8.5 one of the more substantive software updates. Samsung has shipped in recent memory.
For most Galaxy owners, these features do not require any setup or learning curve. Call Screening turns itself on and gets to work. Photo Assist is right there in your gallery. AirDrop integration appears automatically in Quick Share once you update. That kind of friction-free AI is exactly what Samsung said it was aiming for, and for the most part, it delivers.
If you have been holding off on checking your software update settings, now is a good time to go ahead and do it. Your Galaxy phone may already have something worth discovering.
