Samsung Gallery is one of the core apps that comes bundled with Galaxy smartphones. While options like Google Photos exist, there are enough reasons for Galaxy device owners to stick with the company’s Gallery app for managing media. The manufacturer has introduced some new additions to the Gallery app with One UI 8, and it appears that more are on the way with next year’s One UI 8.5 release.
A leak from the team at SammyGuru has highlighted a couple of design changes that are expected to debut with One UI 8.5’s Gallery app. Although these tweaks are largely visual, they are welcome additions from the users’ perspective.
The bottom navigation bar is gone in favor of a more compact design
One UI 8.5’s updated album thumbnails and a brand-new floating bottom bar
First things first, album thumbnails in Samsung Gallery will be displayed in a stack format comprising multiple images for a more appealing view of your media. By contrast, Samsung’s Gallery app today uses the most recent image as the album thumbnail.
It’s unclear how many images will appear in this stack-based thumbnail for albums, with at least three images visible in the screenshot published by SammyGuru. Hopefully, Samsung will let users stick with the existing single-image album preview alongside this new stacked version.
Meanwhile, the Pictures, Albums, Stories, and Menu tabs at the bottom have been relocated to a floating pill-shaped island at the bottom of the screen. While it’s a little too compact compared to the existing well-spaced-out tabs in Samsung Gallery, it aligns with what we’ve seen in previous One UI 8.5 leaks.
It’s worth noting that these changes may not be final yet, as they were spotted in an early build of Samsung’s upcoming update. One may be forgiven for not keeping track of every One UI 8.5 feature that has leaked so far, considering the sheer volume of leaks we’ve encountered.
Changes to the Quick Settings panel are on the way, and a slate of new Galaxy AI features will also be launching with the Android 16-based software early next year. As you would expect, the Galaxy S26 series will likely be the first set of devices to feature One UI 8.5, with older flagships following suit later.
