One UI 8.5 will bring big lock screen customization upgrades

Samsung will release One UI 8.5 alongside the Galaxy S26 series early next year. But a leaked firmware for the Galaxy S25 has already spilled the beans on some of the major changes. An updated One UI 8.5 build has now leaked, packing some notable lock screen customization improvements.

Samsung added an adaptive lock screen clock format with One UI 8.0, and with the next One UI release, it will make the clock even better. In the current build, the clock only automatically adjusted its size when you used a wallpaper with humans or animals.

With One UI 8.5, Samsung will expand object detection, allowing the clock to adapt its layout to more kinds of wallpapers.

Lock screen customization has been a major focus in recent Android updates, and Samsung looks ready to take it up a notch with One UI 8.5.

That’s not the only improvement, though. Leaker @UniverseIce also discovered that Samsung will offer intelligent color selection for the lock screen clock background in One UI 8.5. It will have a frosted glass effect to help with readability.

With One UI 8.5 still months away from release, Samsung continues to actively work on it. The new leaked build features a sleeker floating search bar positioned at the bottom of the app drawer.

Many of the system icons have gained a shiny 3D effect, making them stand out. Plus, the status bar icons are now done in a black finish, moving away from the flat white design used in earlier builds (via @tarunvats33).

One UI 8.5 could bring more changes than One UI 8

All signs point to One UI 8.5 being a bigger update than the .5 version number bump might suggest. It will reportedly be based on Android 16 QPR2, the latest version of the OS that drops in December — a first for any Android skin.

While One UI 8.5 will debut on the Galaxy S25 early next year, Samsung will supposedly open its beta program for the S25 series before the end of this year.