Samsung just dropped a major Home Up update for One UI 8.5

After weeks of compatibility headaches and half-baked beta support, Home Up — arguably the heart of Galaxy home screen customisation — now works with One UI 8.5 beta and gives you real control over your Galaxy home screen again.

If you’ve played around with the One UI 8.5 beta on Galaxy devices, you were probably frustrated when Home Up and a handful of other Good Lock modules broke after the update. For weeks, users saw errors like “not compatible with your new operating system,” basically rendering beloved customisation tools useless.

This update, Home Up v17.5.00.18, not only makes Home Up work again but also adds new, well-designed controls, as shared by @theonecid on X. For example, you can now customize icons, widgets, and folders more deeply, with larger folder layouts that feel less crowded. There is also a unified panel that brings apps, tasks, and contacts together in one place.

Foldable owners get special attention this time around. Samsung now lets you choose how many favorite apps show up on the cover screen. For navigation, users who prefer gestures can now use a new toggle to turn off the gesture for switching to the previous app.

Home Up now helps reduce clutter in areas Samsung usually leaves alone. You can exclude certain apps from the Direct Share panel, making it easier to quickly send things. Samsung also fixed several bugs, including layout alignment issues in DIY mode and issues with the Backup and Restore widgets.

That said, there’s a clear warning label attached to this release. Ice Universe shared on X that enabling the blur option causes animations to lock up and stutter aggressively, especially during transitions.

This update is now rolling out through the Galaxy Store. If it is not available on your device yet, you can sideload the APK, but keep in mind that installing APKs from outside the store comes with some risks.

Samsung has already released several beta versions and continues to improve the software. Once the stable version is ready, more devices will get both the new OS and Good Lock updates.