Don't like the One UI 8 update

[WyrdGary]

Do not like the frosted glass/transperency on notification/quick settings.  Too hard to read.  

Do not like that it removed my keys cafe and theme park themes.

Do not like grouped notifications.

Do not like that notistar get the most important feature removed, lock persistent notifications.

Fonts seem bigger, causing widget names to go over to two lines, but only for one or two letters.

Did not fix battery pill readability.

Overall, feels more like a one UI 7.1 rather than a new OS.

[CEParsons]

1) Turn on reduce transparency and blur in notification settings. Customize further in QuickStar or Theme Park.

2) Both Theme Park and Keys Cafe were overhauled to make way for new interface and new features. Not sure what happened there for you, I retained my icon packs in Theme Park and keyboard layouts in Keys Cafe. The only thing I lost were custom colors selected for keyboard effects.

3) Sorry, this is mostly an Android thing rather than a Samsung thing. Android 16 forces notification grouping.

4) No idea about this one, though it may be related to the reported introduction of priority notification pinning in 8.5

5) Yes, widget font size is slightly larger. Seems to be a stylistic choice. Brought this up in the beta forums.

6) 8.5 will introduce the option to hide the pill and have percentage only, fixing readability issues.

7) Yes, most changes were incremental. More substantial changes are coming in UI8.5.

[WyrdGary]

1.  Dont have any options to reduce transparency/blur in notifications settings.  I used theme park and quickstar to get the backgrounds darker and its at least a bit more legible now.  Lighter wallpapers make it harder to view.  Semi-Resolved.

2.  Becuase of the issue in #1, reset up themes to work.  My keyboard settings where there, but as you said lost the custom colors.  Resolved.

3 and 4.  F Google!  They broke persistent notifications in UI7 and even more now.  I write several tasker tasks and I want notifications persistent from there.  Again F Google!  Persistent notifications fixed based on a comment below, thanks @nullandvoid.  Semi-resolved.

5.  Using Taskers widget V2 actions, was able to fix some annoyances with this.  Resolved.

6.  This was a big complaint with OneUI7, why could you not fix this Samsung!  More annoyance, not that big a deal.  Resolved(or at least I can deal).

7.  Hopefully 8.5 fixes problems as 8.5 will be our last update.

After about a week using 8, everything else seems fine.  Again not a huge update and nothing major broken just nothing major added either.

[CEParsons]

Reduce transparency is in accessibility settings. Misspoke in my previous comment, apologies

Settings > Accessibility > Vision Enhancements > Reduce Transparency

[WyrdGary]

Interesting, I had that toggle on already. Turning it off removes all the transparency and blur from shade. Much better now

[FlyByDC]

This sounds trivial; yet important question. In Contacs, Android Version 16, the category GROUPS is missing. It formerly was visible in the initial landing page. I have tried to find a permission, but I do not see that either. How can I restore Groups because I am a professional and kept several Contact Groups. Where are they and please tell me the lists are stored somewhere. Pretty please? And I am lost because you are also a consumer. I will call them as this is way too much tiny typing. for me.

[nullandvoid]

As far as the NotiStar unable to clear notificaations, check out this workaround:

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Samsung-Apps-and-Services/Good-Lock-NotiStar-quot-Set-app-unable...

[WyrdGary]

Awesome!  Thank you for that info.

[Robin621k]

You can fix the stacked notifications using NotiStar!

[WyrdGary]

How, have not seen it in notistar settings.  Settings seem pretty basic.