C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- One UI 8.5 has introduced a few upgrades to the Linux Terminal feature.
- These upgrades include support for graphical apps and expanded storage access.
- The Linux Terminal is available on Pixel devices and non-Snapdragon devices like the Exynos Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus.
Google brought Linux Terminal support to Android 16 last year, allowing people to run a Linux distribution on some phones and tablets. Exynos-powered Galaxy devices support this feature, and it turns out One UI 8.5 has some welcome upgrades.
Android 16 QPR2 introduces a couple of upgrades to the Terminal experience, namely support for graphical apps and expanded storage access. The good news is that One UI 8.5 is based on this Android version. Information shared with Android Authority by tipster Dylan H reveals that One UI 8.5 indeed offers these Terminal upgrades too. The info was gleaned from an Exynos-powered Galaxy S26 Plus.
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For starters, One UI 8.5’s Terminal app now supports graphical apps. This is accessed by tapping the display icon in the top-right corner of the window (see the first image below). Note that One UI 8, seen in the third image below, doesn’t offer this icon. This addition means you’re no longer restricted to command-line programs and can run apps like GIMP, the Chromium browser, Doom, and more.
One UI 8.5 also offers storage ballooning support, as evident by the 198GB of available space seen in the first image below. In other words, the Linux Terminal can use all available storage on your device from the get-go. By contrast, One UI 8’s Terminal app offers a disk resize slider (see second and third images) to let you adjust the amount of available storage.
The storage improvements don’t stop here, either. The Terminal app in One UI 8 only allows access to the Downloads folder. However, One UI 8.5’s Terminal can now access all of the device’s shared storage, including folders like DCIM, Movies, Music, Android, and more. Check this out in the image below.
Oddly enough, the tipster notes that One UI 8.5 no longer lets you search within developer options. It’s unclear if this is a bug, but it means you now have to enable Terminal access via ADB commands. I really hope Samsung addresses this, as activating this option via developer options is much easier.
These additions also come after we found a few more Terminal upgrades in Android Canary (build 2603). These pending upgrades include a more modern interface, a slider to limit memory usage, and an option to keep the screen awake for a specified duration.
Keen to try the Linux Terminal on your Galaxy device? You’re out of luck if your phone has a Snapdragon chipset, as the feature is only available on some devices with Exynos, MediaTek, or Google Tensor chips.
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