One UI 9 Quick Panel customization: Sound Mode finally breaks free from the volume slider

Samsung's One UI 9 splits apart a Quick Panel pairing that's been fixed in place for years: the Sound Mode toggle no longer has to share a tile with the volume slider, and Display Mode is no longer bundled with brightness. That split, plus new resizing options for several panel controls, is the core of One UI 9 Quick Panel customization, based on hands-on coverage published last month and a community post describing the beta build.

The panel itself goes by different names depending on the outlet, Quick Panel, Quick Settings, Control Center, but it was already customizable in One UI 8.5. One UI 9 goes further, letting users resize individual tiles and decide how much space each control takes up, according to SamMobile. The changes touch the brightness slider, the volume slider, the media player, and the two mode toggles that used to live inside those sliders.

The clearest documented availability point is the One UI 9 beta for Galaxy S26 series devices, which a Samsung Members post says launched earlier this year. Hands-on reports published last month don't specify whether Samsung has extended this layout to stable builds or other Galaxy models, leaving that question open.

Who gets One UI 9 Quick Panel customization right now

The Samsung Members post identifies the Galaxy S26 series as the hardware tied to the beta launch. None of the other cited reports mention support for additional models or stable builds, so the evidence doesn't extend beyond that beta scope.

Independent hands-on detail on how the features actually work comes from XDA Developers, published last month after a month-long test period. That account doesn't say whether the layout has reached devices outside the beta, either.

A Samsung Community Germany post from last month describes the prior layout and the One UI 9 changes in similar terms. It's a community post rather than official Samsung support documentation, useful as a corroborating account alongside the hands-on coverage rather than as a formal release note.

A One UI 9 build is a prerequisite for any of this. None of the cited sources walks through a compatibility check or an exact setup path for confirming the feature set on a given device, so treat any reported behavior as something to verify on your own hardware rather than assume it's waiting there.

One UI 9 separates sound mode controls from the volume slider

Through One UI 8.5, the brightness slider carried a combined Night/Light mode toggle and the volume slider carried a combined mute-style control, in the terms used by the German community post. Each pairing lived in a single tile and could only be changed together.

One UI 9 splits both pairings apart. SamMobile reports that users can now separate the Display Mode and Sound Mode toggles from the brightness and volume sliders, respectively. The German community post adds that the separated settings can be changed individually or removed entirely, a detail SamMobile doesn't spell out in the same way.

The cited reporting doesn't specify whether the detached Sound Mode toggle still cycles through Sound, Vibrate, and Mute the way it did before. Anyone who relies on quick mode-switching should test the toggle directly on a device running the new layout rather than assume the old behavior carries over unchanged.

Before One UI 9, the companion toggles were locked inside the same tiles as their sliders. Breaking that lock is the functional heart of this update, not a cosmetic tweak dressed up as one.

How One UI 9 lets you resize brightness, volume, and media controls

Beyond separating the toggles, One UI 9 lets users resize several panel elements directly. SamMobile reports that the display brightness slider, volume slider, and media player widget can all change size, though that account doesn't specify exact dimensions or tile options.

XDA Developers' hands-on, built on a month of daily use, fills in more detail on the media player specifically. Through One UI 8.5, the outlet reports, the player could only be resized a little vertically. One UI 9 turns it into a fully resizable media player that scales all the way down to a 2×2 widget inside the Control Center.

The same hands-on notes that the media player now picks up a live waveform animation during playback, an effect that extends beyond the Quick Panel to the home screen and the Now Bar on the lock screen.

Resizing the sliders opens up real layout choices. Shrinking them could free up room for more toggles on a crowded first panel screen, while enlarging the media player prioritizes visible playback information over density. The cited reporting doesn't document exact tile dimensions for the sliders or how many toggles fit at each size, so treat these tradeoffs as directional rather than specs to plan a layout around.

Samsung One UI 9 Control Center layout gets a broader design pass

Some of what's changing isn't resizing at all; it's a visual rework sitting underneath the new functionality. The Samsung Members post describes five notable Quick Panel changes building on the One UI 8.5 foundation: thicker sliders, buttons visually separated from slider cards, removal of thick borders around toggles, trimmed surrounding portions on sliders, and integration of Android 17's Expressive design language.

That same community post describes the buttons as larger and says the Display and Sound sliders were redesigned for clarity. Those are the post's own characterizations of a beta build, not claims independently verified through testing.

XDA Developers separately calls Quick Panel customization the biggest highlight of One UI 9, pointing to the new level of control over how much screen space individual toggles and icons occupy. That framing lines up with what SamMobile documents on the resizing side, even though the two accounts come from different vantage points: one from a month-long hands-on test, the other from a community post tracking the beta as it rolled out.

What to check before you expect this layout

Galaxy S26 beta users who already have the update can compare their build against the reported behavior: whether Sound Mode and Display Mode move independently of their old sliders, and whether the brightness slider, volume slider, and media player show the documented resize options. The cited reports don't include a tap-by-tap setup guide or a rollout schedule for other Galaxy models.

Anyone on non-beta or older hardware should treat this layout as unconfirmed on their own device for now. Wait for Samsung's release notes or an on-device software update to confirm it before assuming the feature just hasn't shown up yet.