Samsung will spruce up Galaxy lock screens with a visual feature that Pixel owners should find familiar. In the coming One UI 8.5 update, the company is adding AI-powered weather effects that animate your wallpaper to reflect local conditions, lifting a neat lock screen trick Google has used on its phones.
Galaxy lock screen changes in One UI 8.5 update
One UI 8.5 appears to bring a Weather option in Wallpaper & Style for the Lock Screen, as per details unearthed by GalaxyClub. When turned on, the phone creates dynamic effects — raindrops, drifting snow, fog, or gusts — that mirror what’s happening outside and move across your wallpaper seamlessly according to how you’ve set your backdrop.
This isn’t just an overlay. Samsung is leveraging on-device intelligence to understand the image for subject identification and creation of a depth-aware scene. The result is credible occlusion — snow might fall behind a person in your photo, or rain may fall between foreground buildings that it doesn’t sit flatly upon. Same principle as a portrait blur, or the backdrop of your cinematic wallpaper, just applied to the weather.
The feature expands on some of Samsung’s earlier testing (like Photo Ambient Wallpaper in Labs), but One UI 8.5 turns it into a traditional lock screen experience with its own toggle and system-level integration.
How it works compared with Google’s Pixel implementation
Google’s Pixel phones already have a version of this with Live Effects, which can apply location-aware weather visuals to the lock screen. In both cases, the phone does semantic segmentation and depth estimation so it knows where people and objects are in the image, then adds layers of particle animations on top. It’s a lightweight, GPU-friendly technique that ultimately looks more “real” than a static sticker or GIF.
Where Samsung’s implementation differs is, it seems to be more part of its wider Galaxy AI push, with the effect being combined with the system Weather service so animations can track real conditions. Look for effects that adjust based on intensity — light drizzle as opposed to a downpour — yet don’t overpower the legibility of time, notifications, and music controls on the lock screen.
Why this little touch matters for Galaxy lock screens
That lock screen has become prime real estate. But since big platform updates from Apple and Google raised it with lock screen widgets and personalization, manufacturers have treated it as a canvas for utility and delight. Industry studies show us time and again that people look at their phones tens of times a day, meaning even small polish is perceived hundreds to thousands of times.
There is also a practical benefit: Depth-aware effects can maintain readability by keeping foreground subjects and text in focus while allowing for animation behind them. It’s a more considered approach than busier live wallpapers that can drain battery and obscure information.
Rollout hopes and device support for One UI 8.5 features
It’s likely that One UI 8.5 will launch alongside Samsung’s next Galaxy flagships, before being rolled out in waves to their recent phones in accordance with the company’s typical mid-cycle timeline for releases. That generally means the most recent S-series phones will take priority initially, followed by foldables and certain A-series and FE models.
Beta builds have already started rolling out to testers on current Galaxy S devices, giving us a taster of the weather-based animations and additional lock screen touches. As ever, features in beta may change before the stable release, and some of these features might not be available to you depending on your region and carrier.
First impressions for power users and performance notes
Depth-based animation in general is efficient but not resource-free. Also anticipate that Samsung will limit frame rates and stop effects when the screen is dimmed or Always On Display is activated. There should, however, be an option in the lock screen customization panel for anyone worried about battery life to turn off the feature completely.
In addition to the weather elements you’re looking at, One UI 8.5 is also expected to bring a few more touches for your lock screen, such as swankier transitions for media controls when bumping from one track to the next.
Those small updates, combined with the animated weather effect, are a broader indicator that Samsung is working to make its glanceable screen more responsive, more personal, and less static.
The broader picture: Samsung and Google continue exchanging ideas on surface-level polish while racing at the AI depth. For Galaxy users, that friendly competition results in a lock screen that doesn’t just sound smarter but also feels smarter — as soon as you wake your phone’s display.
