Earlier this week, Samsung began internally testing its first builds of One UI 8.5, the software that will first ship on next year’s Galaxy S26 trio before eventually expanding to older smartphones. A new leak is now giving us our first look at what’s next for Samsung’s visual design language, and — surprise — it’s looking just a little bit like Apple’s Liquid Glass.
As reported by SammyGuru, one developer managed to obtain and port that internal One UI 8.5 build to a Galaxy S21+ for an early preview. We’re pretty limited by what’s shown here — even with four photos to work off of, every image is capturing the settings menu — but it does give us some insight into where Samsung might be heading with its next release. Despite being the company’s second swing at an Android 16 build after this year’s One UI 8 update, there are a handful of visual changes scattered throughout the upgrade.
The AI-powered search bar in settings now floats above the menu system, while a persistent search bar also sticks around on the main page at the bottom of the screen. As a result, the top tab — where the search icon and the “Settings” label once existed — have been removed, with the menu overflowing and fading out along the top and bottom of the page. Within menus, the back button now floats within its own space in the top-left corner, rather than being built into the banner.
Again, these are early, minor changes, but it’s impossible to not notice some degree of Apple inspiration. Twitter user DalgleishGX drew a particularly tight circle around it, pointing out that the settings menu in iOS 26 uses very similar floating search bar and back buttons. Samsung’s implementation is missing the reflective, watercolor-like effect of Liquid Glass, but it’s tough not to see the similarities, even within these relatively minor changes.
It’s a little frustrating to see Samsung giving into some of its worst impulses when it comes to the overall look of One UI, but it’s early days for this software. With Material 3 Expressive also finalized, these relatively small Apple-esque elements could eventually morph into something a little bit closer to Google’s preferred look on Android. With One UI 8.5 all but certain to arrive with the Galaxy S26 next year, only time will tell.
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