Plasma 6.5—scheduled for October 21—is shaping up to be an exciting release packed with changes users have been waiting for. Rounded bottom corners, automatic light and dark theme switching, and new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi toggles are already confirmed.
And now, thanks to the latest update from KDE’s developers, we can add a few more welcome improvements to the list.
One of them is a softer touch when adjusting volume. The Ocean sound theme’s feedback noise for volume changes has been dialed back so it no longer comes across as harsh or clipped at high levels—a small detail, but one that makes daily use feel a little smoother.
On top of that, Plasma 6.5 will now show a system notification whenever a device is plugged in. The team was careful to keep these notifications from being intrusive, and for those who don’t like them, the option to turn them off is still there.
Regarding aesthetics, the Adwaita GTK theme now shows up under its proper name in System Settings rather than simply “Default,” and accessibility improvements have been made to the Flatpak permissions page. Plus, Plasma widgets’ “About” sections also look cleaner, with website links placed in a more logical spot instead of next to license information.
On the graphical side, blur effects are behaving more naturally. Previously, maximizing or moving a window with a blurred background could cause distracting flickers or mismatched textures. Those quirks have now been ironed out.
Additionally, theme switching has been polished too—global themes recolor KDE apps right away without leaving behind stray elements, at least outside of Flatpak-packaged apps, which, according to devs, still need some extra work.
Several long-standing annoyances have been tackled as well. For example, the app launch feedback animation no longer keeps bouncing forever after the app opens.
Moreover, System Tray widget removals now display the correct undo text, and opening the Virtual Desktops page from the pager widget on X11 works again. Even the GNOME Terminal behaves better when themed with Breeze GTK, showing the right background color as expected.
Lastly, as with every development cycle, bug numbers are being closely tracked. Plasma currently sits with four very high-priority issues, unchanged from last week, while the count of “15-minute” bugs—those considered quick enough to fix but still impactful—has climbed to 28.
For more information, see the announcement on the KDE Blog.
Image credits: KDE Project
