TL;DR
- With One UI 8.5 beta, the flashlight also gets a major usability boost with a live “torch on” indicator in the Now Bar.
- YouTube recommendations in Now Brief also now use a clean, swipe-friendly horizontal carousel instead of a tight vertical list.
Samsung’s One UI 8.5 is more than a simple update. After the beta program kicked off a few days ago, it has since changed two features Galaxy users rely on every day: the YouTube cards in Now Brief and the flashlight toggle. Both changes finally fix some old annoyances you might have gotten used to.
One major change is in YouTube recommendations inside the Now Brief widget. Instead of showing two videos in a vertical list, One UI 8.5 uses a horizontal carousel that is much easier to swipe through.
Old YouTube recommendation in the Now BriefYouTube recommendation carousel in the Now Brief
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The old layout looked cramped, with two video thumbnails in a white card below the weather panel. The new design spreads the videos from edge to edge and now matches Samsung’s modern widget style.
A brighter idea for the flashlight
Perhaps, the most practical update is one that Pixel users will recognize right away. One UI 8.5 now shows the torch status directly in the Now Bar. This means the flashlight is treated as a real-time status indicator rather than hidden in the quick toggles. You’ll see a dedicated torch icon at the top of the screen, making it impossible to leave the light on by accident.
Even better, the Now Brief widget surfaces a “Torch on” card that not only tells you the flashlight is active but lets you switch it off instantly, just like on Pixel phones.
Besides these tweaks, the overall look of One UI is getting cleaner. The One UI 8.5 beta adds useful upgrades like smarter widgets, better customization, battery tools, and cross-device storage, making Galaxy phones feel fresher even in early beta.
These updates show Samsung is making One UI more useful and easier to check at a glance, and the company clearly wants the “Now” experience to be helpful, not just a list of data.
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