Samsung Galaxy S25 series just landed the big One UI 8.5 update in the US

Samsung Galaxy S25 users in the United States are finally getting the One UI 8.5 update. After rolling out to newer devices, the update is now making its way to last year’s Galaxy S25 series, bringing a solid list of improvements worth knowing about.

Users on X have reported receiving this update on their Samsung Galaxy S25 devices, so if you own one, now might be the time to go into the software update settings and get the latest update. 

What’s new in One UI 8.5?

One UI 8.5 is bringing several new features and a bunch of UI improvements. The biggest visual change is to the quick settings panel. You can now grab, resize, and drag individual controls wherever you want. The volume and brightness sliders can go vertical, and the media control can expand to a larger size. 

The lock screen also got some love. There are new clock fonts with animations, and a thickness slider lets you fine-tune your clock’s look. A weather toggle now shows live weather animations on your wallpaper, which is a small but genuinely fun touch.

One UI 8.5 also brings a bunch of AI-powered photo editing tools, including erase, move, create, and style. Erase removes objects cleanly, move lets you reposition elements in a shot, create adds sketched objects using AI, and style transforms selfies into cartoon versions of yourself.

Are there any missing features?

While last year’s Galaxy S25 models are finally getting the One UI 8.5 update, it’s not all good news. It seems that there are several missing features in One UI 8.5 that the older models are not getting. 

Users at Korean Samsung forums have discovered as many as nine missing features, with the two biggest being the Now Nudge and 24MP camera mode. Other glaring omissions include Notification Highlights, Finder shortcut on the Home Screen, Samsung Browser’s Ask AI, and more. 

It doesn’t feel like any of these features depend on the new hardware of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. They are just feature gatekeeping on Samsung’s part to force users to upgrade to new devices. 

I criticize Apple every year for gatekeeping new camera features on the latest iPhone models. It seems that Samsung is not only following in Apple’s footsteps but also pushing things much further.