Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8.5 software refresh introduces a glossy, layered look that strongly resembles Apple’s iOS 26 Liquid Glass aesthetic. The leaked build shows softer shadows, floating buttons, and subtle edge gradients that make system screens feel like stacked translucent cards instead of flat panels. These adjustments affect core areas like Settings and navigation, which makes them a significant shift rather than a superficial theme update.
The screenshots, published by SammyGuru, come from a pre-release One UI 8.5 build that was ported to a Galaxy S21+ but originated from a Galaxy S25 Ultra test image. This origin explains why the design appears unified even though features are incomplete. What makes the shift more striking is Samsung’s long-running ad campaigns that mock Apple’s design decisions. Despite that rivalry, One UI 8.5 now embraces many of the same visual cues that Apple introduced in iOS 26 to add depth, translucency, and tactile separation between interface layers.
On the home screen of Settings, subtitles under each option are gone, creating a denser list where more items fit without scrolling. A bottom search field replaces the top bar, making it easier to reach with a thumb on tall devices. Faint gradients now appear at the top and bottom of long lists to suggest depth and off-screen content, while the expanded search page switches to a three-column grid for faster scanning. These changes closely echo Apple’s effort to modernize at-a-glance navigation in iOS 26.
The resemblance is even clearer inside submenus as the back button has been redesigned into a floating, rounded pill with a soft shadow, lifted visually above the content below it. Section containers also adopt subtle elevation with edge shadows, building a card-like hierarchy. This layered structure mirrors iOS 26’s Liquid Glass direction, where floating controls and stacked panels help distinguish navigation from content while making the interface feel lighter and more tactile.
Here are all the iOS 26-inspired changes visible in the One UI 8.5 leak:
- Settings list tightened with subtitles removed, aligning with Apple’s denser layout style.
- Search bar moved to the bottom with a shadow, echoing iOS 26’s lower-screen reachability focus.
- Gradients at the top and bottom of long lists to indicate depth and scroll boundaries.
- Expanded search redesigned as a three-column grid for quicker scanning, similar to Apple’s category-focused layouts.
- Back button redesigned as a floating pill with elevation, nearly identical to iOS 26’s raised controls.
- Containers styled with soft shadows and elevation, creating a glass-like layered effect.
For Samsung users, these refinements may make everyday navigation clearer and faster, especially with improved depth cues and easier reach to search. But the overlap with Apple’s design language is difficult to ignore.
Samsung typically delivers mid-cycle updates like this before a major version jump, so One UI 8.5 is expected to debut on the Galaxy S26 series before rolling out more widely. The scope of coordinated design changes suggests this is a committed refresh rather than an experiment, meaning the layered, glass-like style is likely to stay. The irony is that while Samsung continues to market itself in contrast to Apple, its software now borrows heavily from the very design ideas it ridicules in ads, underscoring just how influential Apple’s aesthetic shifts remain across the industry.
