1. Rebuild the Quick Settings panel with QuickStar

The default Quick Settings panel is absolutely fine, but One UI 8.5 gives you way more control if you use the QuickStar module inside Good Lock. Once QuickStar is enabled, open Advanced settings and turn on Show bar levels and Resize panel owners. That unlocks the kind of layout control that lets you make the whole panel feel completely different.

The big change is that you can reshape and rearrange more of the panel. I can make the brightness slider and volume slider vertical, shrink them down, resize the media player widget, and move everything around to save vertical space. I can also remove toggles I don’t use, which makes the panel feel cleaner instead of crammed with buttons.

My favorite part is the button box. You can grab a toggle, like the torch icon, pull it out of the main button area, and turn it into its own isolated control. Then you can resize it and place it exactly where you want. With a bit of tweaking, the Quick Settings panel can go from standard Samsung layout to something that feels custom-built.

2. Add image backgrounds to Quick Settings controls

One UI 8.5 also lets you add custom images to individual Quick Settings elements. Open the edit panel style menu, tap an element like brightness, choose an image from recent photos, and apply it. You can do the same for the volume panel, media panel, and button box panel.

With custom images applied across the panel, it honestly looks really, really cool. The only catch I noticed is that when you add a background to buttons, the text disappears for some reason. Hopefully Samsung fixes that, because the customization itself is excellent.

3. Make the lock screen clock wrap around more wallpapers

The lock screen customization in One UI 8.5 is better because the dynamic clock now works with more than just people and pets. Long press the lock screen, authenticate, choose a wallpaper from Gallery, and then tap the clock. When you switch to the dynamic clock option, the clock reshapes itself around foreground elements in the image.

This existed in One UI 8, but it was more limited. In One UI 8.5, it works on almost everything else as well, which makes the feature much easier to use with normal wallpapers. The lock screen also automatically moves the clock into a more optimal position when the wallpaper is applied.

4. Expand lock screen wallpapers beyond the original image

One UI 8.5 lets you extend lock screen wallpapers beyond what the original image allows. After choosing a wallpaper, you can lower or reposition the image, then move the clock down as well. The result is subtle, but it can make the lock screen layout look a little more balanced and visually appealing.

5. Turn on the lock screen weather animation

There’s also a new weather icon along the bottom of the lock screen editor. This feature existed on a limited number of Samsung phones a few years back, but it was buried deep in the wallpaper settings menu. In One UI 8.5, it’s much easier to find.

When enabled, it plays a weather-related animation on your lock screen whenever it’s raining or snowing in your area. It’s not a massive productivity feature, but it is a neat visual touch that’s finally less hidden.

6. Manually control Always On Display brightness

If you use the LockStar module through Good Lock, One UI 8.5 adds a new Always On Display brightness option. Open LockStar from the lock screen customization area, tap the Always On Display text, and you’ll see the new AOD auto brightness setting.

Toggle auto brightness off, and you can manually control how bright the Always On Display is. That means you can make it brighter during the day or dimmer at night instead of relying on automatic behavior.

7. Customize the back gesture icon with NavStar

NavStar now lets you customize the side back gesture icon with almost anything you want. Open the NavStar module in Good Lock, scroll to Side back gesture icon, and Samsung gives you a bunch of built-in options. Some are clean and minimal, while others are much more obvious, like a burger icon.

You can also choose a downloaded sticker or select any image from your Gallery. Using something silly like a rainbow cake is pretty hilarious, but the feature could actually look really good if you used an intentional custom PNG back-style image.

8. Record only part of the screen

Partial screen recording is one of the genuinely useful new One UI 8.5 features. Open Quick Settings, tap the screen recorder toggle, and the updated interface now includes an option for partial screen recordings.

After tapping it, choose Start recording, move the capture box with the circle at the top, and adjust the corner handles until the recording area is exactly where you want it. Once you hit record, the phone captures only that selected portion of the display.

9. Launch AI Select from the Edge panel handle

AI Select is quicker to access in One UI 8.5. Previously, you had to swipe in the Edge panel and then tap AI Select. Now you can long press the Edge panel handle and it activates straight away.

Once AI Select opens, you can circle whatever you want on screen and use the feature from there. It’s a small gesture change, but it removes a step from something that used to feel slightly buried.

10. Set 24MP photos as the default on the Galaxy S26 series

For now, this one is for Samsung’s newest lineup, the Galaxy S26 series. One UI 8.5 adds a way to shoot in 24-megapixel resolution as the default option, and hopefully it comes to older devices at some point in the future.

Open the Camera app, tap the four-dot menu, tap the settings cog, and scroll to Camera Assistant. If the Camera Assistant Good Lock module is not installed, tapping it will prompt you to install it. Once inside Camera Assistant, go to the Photo section, tap 24 megapixel resolution, toggle it on, and also enable Keep 24 megapixel resolution.

After that, return to the Camera app and tap the resolution label that says 12 megapixels. You can switch it to 24 megapixels, and the setting will stay that way indefinitely unless you manually change it later.

11. Hide the clutter in Pro Video mode

Pro Video mode has a tiny new toggle in One UI 8.5 that cleans up the camera interface. Open the Camera app, tap More, then Pro Video, and you’ll see the option to hide the chaos that normally makes the interface look messy and somewhat convoluted.

When enabled, the Camera app strips the view down to the lens modes and the record button. If you actually use Pro Video, this makes the mode feel less visually overloaded.

12. Scan cleaner PDFs with Samsung’s document scanner

Samsung has always been one of the best OEMs for built-in document scanning, and One UI 8.5 makes the scanner even better. Point the Camera app at a document, and it shows a floating bounding box asking whether you want to scan it. Tap the scan text, and within seconds it turns the page into a high-fidelity scanned document.

The clever part is that the scanner can use AI to remove things like fingers and corner folds. In my test scan, it removed creasing from the paper and even removed my finger from the bottom of the scan. You can also tap Add scan to add more pages into the same document, then save the whole thing as one combined PDF.

Bonus: Batch edit photos with Gallery Assistant

Gallery Assistant is a relatively new Good Lock module, and it is honestly such an underrated tool. Once it’s installed, open Samsung Gallery, select as many images and videos as you want, tap the More menu, and choose Edit with Gallery Assistant.

From there, you can batch edit selected photos in one go. Almost none of the tools feel like gimmicks. Even something simple like rotate and flip becomes seriously killer when you can apply a quick straighten or rotate adjustment to a large number of photos at once.

Power user setting: Turn off Auto Blocker for sideloaded APKs

If you rely on sideloading third-party APKs that are not downloaded from the Google Play Store, One UI 8.5 feels more restrictive than past versions. When you try to install a downloaded APK, you may immediately see an Unknown app blocked pop-up that prevents the install.

To get around it, open Settings, go to Security and privacy, then find Auto Blocker. Toggle it off, authenticate with biometrics, and you’ll be able to install APKs again. There’s also an extra option enabled by default that turns Auto Blocker back on after 30 minutes for extra security.

Block apps that send too many ad notifications

One of the best underrated One UI 8.5 features is designed to stop invasive apps that send far too many ad-based notifications. Open Settings, scroll to Device care, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Settings. Right at the top, you’ll find the feature for blocking apps with excessive ads.

Enable the Intelligent blocking toggle, and One UI will start analyzing the apps you use. If it detects an app sending too many ad-based notifications, those notifications get blocked. I’m sure we can all think of an app or two that deserves that treatment.

My favorite One UI 8.5 hidden tricks so far

The best One UI 8.5 tricks are the ones that either save time or make the phone feel genuinely yours. QuickStar’s new Quick Settings controls are the most visually dramatic, partial screen recording is immediately practical, and Gallery Assistant is the underrated tool I think more Samsung users should actually use.

For power users, the Auto Blocker change is important to know, especially if sideloading APKs is part of your normal setup. For everyone else, the lock screen upgrades, cleaner document scanning, faster AI Select gesture, and ad notification blocking are the features I’d turn on first.