What you need to know
- An alleged One UI 8.5 clip shows that Samsung could bring a revamped lock screen animation effect for its media player when listening to music.
- Users could find the song’s album cover centered on their lock screen, with song details underneath, when using their media controls.
- Previous rumors claim Samsung is working a Call Screen feature like Google’s Pixels, and that a beta could happen in late November.
Samsung is steadily progressing with its next One UI update, and it looks like its lock screen is in for a new musical look.
Overnight, social media tipster Tarun Vats posted a short video on X, showcasing a supposed update to the media player widget on Samsung’s One UI 8.5 lock screen (via Android Authority). According to Vats, Samsung is preparing to roll out a “new album art transition effect” on your lock screen when tapping the “skip” button.
In the video, the media player’s widget at the bottom looks relatively the same as it is currently in One UI 8. However, what hogs the spotlight is a rather large area reserved for the song’s album cover.
Instead of detailing what song and artist are playing in the media control widget, the cover takes care of that. The album art sits prominently in the center of the lock screen, and beneath that are your core details: song title, artist, and/or featured artists. When switching songs, the album art will change accordingly, though there is a small delay between the user’s interaction and the software recognizing the change.
The transition effect is quite refined, as new album covers emerge from the remains of the other. In the clip, Vats is using their Spotify songs to get this to work. It’s not clear how far Samsung’s support will go if this makes it to One UI 8.5’s live launch. But perhaps we can expect support for YouTube Music, Pandora, and more, too.
Samsung’s putting in the work
One UI 8.5: New feature 👀Media player now adds a new album art transition effect 🎶 pic.twitter.com/OsNCzccPUNOctober 17, 2025
Older rumors have speculated that One UI 8.5 could hold even more advancements for Samsung’s software over a smaller 0.1 version patch. This seems to be the case, as a recent report claims Samsung is working on a Pixel-like calling feature for Galaxy phones. Rumors say the company is looking to develop a Call Screen feature that uses AI to run its major processes. Such processes include call transcription, spam filtering for unknown callers/spam calls, and automatic answering.
It was suggested that users could have varying “screening levels.” If at the highest, your device would act as more of a defensive bastion, blocking out most things. If lighter, then there’s more leeway.
All we have are these little tidbits, as Samsung’s testing things internally on its servers; however, eager Galaxy users could get their chance, too. Some theorize that Samsung could launch a beta program for One UI 8.5 sometime this fall, in late November.
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