Liquid Glass-like redesigns coming to your Samsung Galaxy phone next year [Gallery]

Ben Schoon | Dec 9 2025 - 5:00 am PT

Samsung’s One UI 8.5 beta is here and, with it, a look at Samsung’s updated design language. But there are some changes that feel eerily familiar, probably because Samsung is bringing a lot of Liquid Glass-like UI tweaks to Galaxy phones with its next big One UI update.

One UI 8.5 brings several notable design changes, and put simply, a lot of it feels like it was inspired by Apple’s new Liquid Glass overhaul in iOS 26. That’s not to say Samsung is all-in on the transparent design elements – thank goodness – but there are a lot of things that feel similar.

For example, there’s a new floating back button in the Settings menu and Samsung’s first-party apps, just like you see in iOS.

*One UI 8 (L), One UI 8.5 (Middle), iOS 26 (R)*

Samsung’s apps are also full of floating navigation bars with rounded sides, again just like we see throughout Liquid Glass, as clearly seen in the dialer app.

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In the Gallery app, Samsung is also employing a bit of transparency here too.

Another example that stood out to me was in Samsung’s Calculator app. The buttons now have a 3D-ish “pop top” effect that, again, looks a lot like Apple’s design.

Personally, I don’t consider any of this a direct problem. Samsung’s take on Liquid Glass is pulling some of the least controversial bits, and doesn’t feel at all overbearing like early versions of Liquid Glass did. But it does feel like a pretty weird move. Samsung is pretty clearly drawing inspiration from iOS when Google has built out Material 3 Expressive to near-universal praise. It’s perfectly fine for Samsung to go in its own direction, but it is also notable that the divide in experience and design between Samsung’s UI and first-party apps versus the Google apps and third-party apps that Galaxy owners are using every day just continues to grow.

What do you think of Samsung’s changes? Are you looking forward to it?

One UI 8.5 will arrive on Galaxy phones starting in 2026, probably following the launch of the Galaxy S26 series, and is available in beta now on the Galaxy S25 series.