The photo editor in Samsung’s Galaxy phones has always felt like two different teams built it without talking to each other. Powerful tools buried under confusing menus. Features that required saving multiple copies just to try different edits. A workflow that punished experimentation.
One UI 8.5 finally addresses this, though calling it innovation would be generous.
The main improvement is embarrassingly simple: you can now chain edits without creating a new saved version each time. Want to erase something, then move another object, then add a creative element? You can do all that in sequence and decide whether to save only when you’re done.
Previous versions forced you into a rigid save-or-discard choice after every single change. That might work for careful, planned edits, but it killed any spontaneous creative process. The new “Save a copy” and “Continue editing” options give you control over when to commit.
There’s also an edit history feature that lets you jump back to specific steps. Not groundbreaking by industry standards, but useful when you’ve gone down the wrong path and want to backtrack without starting over.
The individual tools (AI Eraser, Move, Create, Style) now sit in a cleaner bottom toolbar. Less hunting through submenus. More obvious what does what.
Samsung hasn’t added any genuinely new editing capabilities here. They’ve just made the existing ones less frustrating to use. That’s worthwhile, but it raises the question of why basic usability took this long to address.
The fourth beta should land on Galaxy S25 devices soon, with broader rollout expected after the S26 launch in late February. Whether this update justifies the jump from 8.0 to 8.5 is debatable, but anyone who regularly edits photos on their Samsung phone will appreciate the streamlined workflow.
