Is Samsung’s One UI 8 really copying iOS 26? Let’s see them side by side

We’re pitting Apple’s iOS 26 against Samsung’s One UI again. Last time, we took a deep dive at how the iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras compare. This time, we’re closely inspecting some of the user interface differences between the latest version of iOS and Samsung’s ongoing and upcoming One UI 8.0 and One UI 8.5 updates, respectively.

This should come as no surprise if you’ve been on social media lately, but the big question on a lot of people’s minds is whether Samsung is copying Apple and if One UI 8.0 and 8.5 look more like Apple’s iOS 26 than any of the previous versions.

In short, while there is a resemblance between the two software platforms, as it’s almost always been, most similarities appear to be surface-level only. And yes, that seems to hold true even when it comes to the quick panel in One UI 8.5 and the Control Center in iOS 26.

Here is our One UI 8.5 vs iOS 26 comparison, and join us below for One UI 8.0 vs iOS 26.

We wouldn’t say that either of these tech giants develops its software in a bubble without considering what the other one is doing. Hence, some ideas will be borrowed. But they still have fundamentally different core ideas.

For example, One UI 8.5 moves the search bar in the Settings app to the bottom of the screen — something iOS has been doing for a while. And Samsung will also clean up each entry in the Settings screen by removing some of the extra text.

But this aesthetic and reachability choice aside, one of the most notable differences between these two platforms comes down to how users interact with their phones through gestures. And although Apple relied on gestures long before Samsung, it seems like One UI does things a bit better than iOS in some areas. Or, at the very least, we prefer the One UI way.

You may chalk this up to our bias toward One UI because we are Samsung fans, but we think that our videos do both platforms justice, and you can see why we prefer the One UI gesture design in many areas. Over the years, Samsung just seems to have done a lot more for one-hand usability.

If you want to know more about this topic, you should check out our One UI 8 vs iOS 26 video below. And for a closer look at iOS 26 versus Samsung’s early One UI 8.5 build, which is not yet officially released, see the video above and stay tuned for more.