Will Privacy Screen come to Galaxy S25 and other devices with One UI 8.5?

One of Samsung’s most exciting new features is Privacy Display. Ever since it debuted on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, we’ve received a lot of questions about whether or not Samsung will bring it to older Galaxy phones with the upcoming One UI 8.5 update.

The short answer is no. But it’s not because Samsung wants to monitor the technology. Well, at least. There is something of a gatekeeper even within the Galaxy S26 lineup itself. The Privacy Display is exclusive to the Ultra model. The base S26 and S26+ have them.

But what about One UI 8.5 or future updates? Can the software bring the privacy screen to more phones? After all, most Galaxy devices use AMOLED panels that can turn off individual pixels.

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Although Privacy Screen uses AI to determine which parts of the screen should be hidden, the feature is also dependent on specialized hardware.

That hardware is called Flex Magic Pixel, and it’s built into the S26 Ultra’s latest AMOLED display and nowhere else.

We’ve explained the technology in detail before, but the short version is simple. The Flex Magic Pixel display uses two types of pixels: Wide and Narrow. These are physical pixel structures at a microscopic level, not something added with One UI 8.5.

When Privacy Display is off, both the Wide and Narrow pixels light up normally, producing a visible image at normal viewing angles.

But when Privacy Screen is enabled, that’s where the magic happens. Wide pixels are turned off and only small pixels render the image.

The structure of the Subpixel – or rather, the mask around these pixels – limits the way light spreads. Instead of being widely scattered, the light is tightly focused, making the screen very difficult to view from the side.

In simple words, the visual boundaries around these tiny little pixels limit visibility to very shallow viewing angles.

AMOLED displays already manage individual pixels, but they don’t have separate wide and narrow pixel structures. Think of traditional AMOLED panels as only having Wider pixels. And you can’t add dense, physical pixels at the hardware level through a software update.

To be honest, the confusion is understandable, especially if you’ve only been a Samsung user for the past few years.

In recent years, Samsung has relied heavily on software and AI to introduce new features. Some would argue that the company has emphasized software development over hardware.

Because of that trend, it’s easy to imagine that anything new in the Galaxy S26 series could eventually reach older phones with updates. The Privacy Display also carries a strong AI component, reinforcing that expectation.

But this time, Samsung actually built new hardware to enable this feature. And hardware isn’t something a software update can add later.

All that being said, if you want to have a privacy display, you can buy the Galaxy S26 Ultra now or wait for the technology to spread to future generations. Don’t buy the base or Plus model and hope they get Privacy Display in an update. It won’t.