One UI 8.5 tipped to borrow Liquid Glass elements after this Quick Settings change

What you need to know

• The latest reports state that Samsung has updated its One UI 8.5 builds with a subtle change for its Quick Settings menu design.
• Tipsters claim that the update brings better separation between its icon toggles and the blurred aesthetic, reminiscent of Apple's Liquid Glass.
• A One UI 8.5 beta program was previously speculated for November; however, recent reports say that timeline is now "unlikely."

Samsung's continued efforts at working through One UI 8.5 have been reported, and it seems that the OS is taking a little inspiration from the competition.

Just like before, X tipster Tarun Vats on X dug through the recent updates to Samsung's One UI 8.5 and discovered a familiar change to the Quick Settings (via Android Authority). According to Vats, Samsung has pushed an update for its internal test that supposedly makes the Quick Settings menu icons "pop." Samsung has included a soft, black border around the menu's icons that only serves to bring them off the screen a little bit.

While Samsung's current One UI 8 Quick Settings (and UI in general) is quite clean, one could make the argument that it doesn't pop. It assumes that blurred, clean aesthetic across its entirety, but this small update tries to breathe separation into the equation.

From what Vats discovered, the pop is just for the toggleable icons, as the containers for the icons are still blurred. Even the sliders remain pretty much the same as what we currently have with v8.0. All in all, the small change gives us Apple Liquid Glass vibes, just with how one little change provides that pop of separation.

Still on the outside looking in

It might hurt being on the outside looking in, but it looks like that might be the case for a while, as reports claim Samsung had to delay its One UI 8.5 beta. Original rumors said we might see a beta program kickoff in November, but things have changed, as tipsters now claim that's "unlikely." Nothing's for certain now as to why the company pushed it back, but there's some speculation that it could have to do with its uncertain Galaxy S26 series lineup.

Specifically, recent reports claim that Samsung has dropped its Galaxy S26 Edge in favor of returning the S26 Plus to the equation next year. There are also rumors that the S26 series could launch later next year, maybe as late as March.

Other reports speculate that Samsung could be moving into a world where it matches Google's update cadence and bring Android to its Galaxy users faster. A few firmware leaks suggest Samsung could shift into quarterly Android updates for Galaxy phones, marking a distinct change, as it typically forgoes such patches.