One UI 8.5 Brings Album Art Transitions to Media Player

Samsung’s One UI 8.5 will not only introduce new features, but also bring an improved visual experience across the board. Once such improvement looks to come within the media player, which now includes album art transition effects. This makes switching between songs on the lock screen more visually engaging.

One UI 8.5 improves the media player with transition effects

Samsung lets you control music directly on your lock screen through the Now Bar. When you play music on your Galaxy smartphone, the widget shows next, previous, and play/pause buttons. This eliminates the need to unlock your device as you can manage tracks from the lock screen. If you tap on the Now Bar, it expands into the full-screen media player, displaying the album art with more controls.

However, when you click the next button to switch tracks, the album art changes without any visual effect. Now, with One UI 8.5, you’ll notice smooth album art transition effects (via Tarun Vats). As you can see in the video below, the album art slides into the new image.

One UI 8.5: New feature 👀

Media player now adds a new album art transition effect 🎶 pic.twitter.com/OsNCzccPUN

— Tarun Vats (@tarunvats33) October 17, 2025

The album art transition effect is part of Samsung’s broader effort to improve the lock screen experience with One UI 8.5. For example, the lock screen now features blurred backgrounds for notifications, which improves readability. The adaptive clock, previously limited to pets and human subjects, can now work on different subjects. Moreover, the clock can automatically select a color that harmonizes with your wallpaper.

However, you’ll have to wait a few weeks or months to experience all the latest improvements. One UI 8.5 is currently in the testing stage and may enter the beta channel by the end of November 2025. The stable version may debut with the upcoming Galaxy S26 series in January 2026.