While One UI is known for its deep customization features, I’m not a fan of digging into several layers of the Settings to access the operating system’s best features.
The search bar on the Settings page helps, but it isn’t always the best solution.
I didn’t arrive at that conclusion on my own. Samsung instilled the belief in me that it can do a far better job of making those deep customization options more accessible.
While the South Korean giant deserves credit for that, it can’t escape criticism for not giving enough attention to other accessibility issues that One UI still has.
However, I quite like what I’ve seen from Samsung this year regarding One UI.
Both One UI 7 and One UI 8 were big releases with a plethora of major new features this year, but I bumped into a small accessibility feature that largely went unnoticed by the masses.
I accidentally discovered it earlier this year on One UI 7, and it has now become my favorite feature of 2025. Here’s why.
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I can’t stop raving about it
I wasn’t a beta tester, so whatever I saw after updating to One UI 7 felt exciting.
However, only a few of those additions felt like a true game-changer. Out of all those, I only have one that stands out from the crowd, and it’s now my favorite feature: the volume bar shortcut.
When I first saw reports of One UI 7 introducing a volume slider in the Quick panel, I rejected it outright because the physical volume buttons were more convenient to use.
My opinion about the physical volume buttons on my Galaxy S21 hasn’t changed.
However, my perception of the volume slider in the Quick panel witnessed a complete reversal after I first discovered that long pressing it displays shortcuts to important sound settings.
Unlike previously, I no longer consider it a way to change the volume. Instead, I tap and hold the volume slider in the Quick panel to adjust the equalizer to enjoy music the way I like it best.
In addition to tweaking the equalizer, it allows you to enable or disable the Loudness normalization toggle and change the Dolby Atmos setting.
The shortcut also features a Details button, which takes you directly to the Sound quality and effects page in the One UI Settings. This page includes everything that the volume bar shortcut offers, plus more.
The one that’s particularly useful to me is the ability to change sound settings for individual apps.
If you set a sound profile while listening to music on Spotify and forget to reset to the default, you can do so from the App sound settings option on the Sound quality and effects page.
All of these no longer require you to dig through the One UI Settings. Instead, I tap and hold the volume slider to get all the necessary sound controls at my fingertips.
The volume bar shortcut proves Samsung is serious about improving One UI
Introducing new features inspired by the latest trend, fixing what’s broken, and redesigning the UI elements are common practices in the industry.
Samsung is no different, but One UI updates in 2025 felt like a lot more than routine new features and bug fixes.
Long-press isn’t anything new to One UI, but implementing the gesture in a way that justifies the need for a volume slider in the Quick panel is commendable.
Samsung did it so cleverly that it feels like the most obvious thing to long press the volume slider to display additional sound settings.
It isn’t a game-changer for most users, but it clearly shows Samsung still pays attention to even the tiniest of details.
It’s a clear sign that Samsung hasn’t taken anything for granted in One UI and is serious about improving the Android operating system.
I hope Samsung will bring more such shortcuts in future updates, eliminating the need to dig through Settings to get quick access to useful features.
What else does One UI get right in 2025?
Everyone loves useful new features, improvements, bug fixes, and so do I. But it’s naive to judge a company like Samsung based on those parameters.
Sure, it passes those tests with flying colors, but that’s not my rationale for why I think it got many things right with One UI in 2025.
Following the One UI 7 rollout fiasco, Samsung took a concrete step to speed up its software updates. It directly impacted everyone eligible to get the One UI 8 and later versions.
The shift in strategy worked for Samsung, as it finally addressed users’ complaints that they had to wait too long after Google’s rollout of a new Android version for its Pixel phones.
The company managed to roll out the Stable One UI 8 to the Galaxy S25 series in September, just three months after Google first pushed the Android 16 update to its Pixel phones.
This is remarkable progress if you are aware of the company’s records regarding the One UI update rollout. It also means we’ll get cool accessibility features like the volume bar shortcut quickly in the future.
