One UI 8.5 gives Samsung Galaxy users significantly more room to personalize the look and behavior of their phone than most people realize. Some of these One UI 8.5 settings are buried inside the stock system menus, while others unlock through Samsung's Good Lock app a powerful companion tool available on the Galaxy Store.
If you just updated to One UI 8.5 and haven't explored beyond the default setup yet, here are six settings and features that are genuinely worth your time.
1. Resize and Rearrange the Quick Panel
The Quick Panel is the first place to start when customizing One UI 8.5. Swipe down from the top of the screen twice, tap the pencil (edit) icon, and you'll enter the Quick Panel editor. From here, you can move toggles around, remove the ones you never use, and resize them some can shrink to a single small square or expand to span two columns.
The brightness and volume sliders can also be set to display horizontally or vertically, depending on your preference. The media player widget adjusts its size automatically based on whether something is actively playing.
To remove a toggle you don't need to just tap the minus icon next to it. You can add new ones, including controls for third-party apps like Amazon or Google TV, by tapping Add a control.
For deeper customization beyond what the stock editor allows, install Good Lock from the Galaxy Store or Play Store, then install the QuickStar module from within Good Lock's Plugins tab. Open QuickStar, enable it, then go to Advanced settings and turn on Resize panel items. This unlocks the ability to make toggles and sliders larger than the default editor permits. Just avoid going overboard with resizing every single toggle tends to make the panel harder to use, not easier.
2. Clean Up the Camera Viewfinder With Camera Assistant
The camera interface in One UI 8.5 has more customization options than it appears to at first glance. The small status indicators that stack up at the top of the viewfinder can clutter your shooting experience, and Good Lock's Camera Assistant module lets you clean them up selectively.
Install Camera Assistant directly from the Galaxy Store, or find it via the Plugins tab inside Good Lock. Once installed, open Camera Assistant from your app drawer or through the camera app's own settings menu, scroll to the bottom, and tap Customize indicators.
From that screen, you can toggle off any indicators you don't need for a cleaner viewfinder. Everything you remove is still accessible from the four-dot menu at the bottom right of the camera interface, so nothing is permanently gone.
This works for both Photo and Video modes, though a handful of indicators including Log, HDR, and the resolution readout remain visible in Video mode regardless, as they reflect active camera settings.
3. Create Custom Home Screen Folder Sizes With Home Up
Home Up is another Good Lock module that brings a small but practical improvement to the One UI 8.5 home screen: freely resizable folders.
Install Home Up from the Plugins tab in Good Lock and open it. Toggle it on at the top to unlock its full feature set. Then tap the Home screen card, scroll down to Large folder, and inside that menu, enable the Custom option.
Once this is active, you can long-press any folder on your home screen and resize it freely more flexible than the fixed sizes Samsung offers by default. If a folder doesn't seem resizable yet, try long-pressing it first and selecting the Enlarge option from the pop-up menu before attempting to resize.
4. Hide Photos and Videos With Private Album
One UI 8.5 includes a built-in Private Album feature in Samsung Gallery that lets you lock photos and videos behind your fingerprint or passcode no third-party app required.
To move a photo or video to the private album, open it in Gallery, tap the More (⋮) button, and select Move to private album. You can also select multiple files at once and move them all in a single step.
To view your hidden content, open the Gallery app, tap the Menu button on the home screen, and select Private album. Authentication is required to access it. Moving files back out is equally simple open the file inside the private album and tap the Move button at the bottom.
This is a genuinely useful privacy feature for anyone who shares their phone occasionally and wants to keep certain photos out of the main gallery.
5. Generate AI Wallpapers in Creative Studio
One UI 8.5 changes how AI-generated wallpapers work compared to earlier versions. Instead of just typing a text prompt, Creative Studio can now build a wallpaper around one of your own photos blending your image with a chosen art style and a written description.
Open Creative Studio from your app drawer and scroll left to find the Create wallpaper option. First, tap the wand icon to select an art style options include childhood sketch, oil painting, webtoon, 3D cartoon, and others. Then, choose a photo from your gallery to use as the base, and type a text description of what you want to see in the result.
Tap Generate, and Creative Studio will combine your prompt, the photo, and the selected style into a finished wallpaper. If the result isn't what you wanted, you can adjust the prompt, change the style, or generate a new version. Once you're satisfied, tap Set as wallpaper to apply it to your home screen, lock screen, or both.
6. Add Widgets to Samsung DeX
Samsung DeX received one of its most meaningful updates in years with One UI 8.5: you can now add widgets directly to the DeX home screen, giving the desktop interface a more functional, tablet-like feel without disrupting the overall desktop layout.
To add a widget in DeX, right-click on an empty area of the desktop. If you're using your phone's touchscreen as a trackpad for DeX, tap the display with two fingers to simulate a right-click. From the context menu that appears, select Widgets, choose what you want, and place it on the desktop.
This update makes DeX noticeably more useful for extended productivity sessions, since previously the desktop was limited to app icons and windows with no persistent information widgets in view.
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