Galaxy S26 may launch with hidden One UI 8.5 features for a smarter user experience

What you need to know

• Samsung allegedly hides exclusive One UI 8.5 features for Galaxy S26, including AI notification summaries.
• Leak suggests that the AI notification summary tool leverages Samsung's Gauss model, supporting multiple languages at launch.
• One UI 8.5 offers redesigned Quick Settings and enhanced Gallery app features for the Galaxy S25 series.

Samsung introduced the One UI 8.5 beta for the Galaxy S25 series earlier this month. The new software version for Samsung smartphones brings features like a redesigned Quick Settings panel, updates to Quick Share, the ability to see all your files across all your devices, redesigned app icons, and more. And it may be gatekeeping some of it exclusively for its new Galaxy S26 series.

One of the new Galaxy AI features debuting with One UI 8.5 is the upgraded Photo Assist in the Gallery app, which allows you to apply AI edits to images without saving each iteration. It, however, appears Samsung is hiding even more Galaxy AI features within the build.

AI notification summaries may remain exclusive to Galaxy S26 at first

According to reliable leaker @chunvn8888 on X, "lots" of One UI 8.5 features are not available right now because Samsung is keeping them exclusive to the Galaxy S26 series at launch.

One of the features the leaker mentions is the AI notification summary feature. This tool is reportedly part of One UI 8.5 but currently disabled. It will use Samsung's in-house Gauss model to provide users with a summary of their notifications from the past 24 hours.

The leaker adds that the feature will support several languages at launch including English, Korean, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Polish, simplified Chinese (中国大陆), Japanese, Hindi, Vietnamese, and Thai.

The feature will likely remain exclusive to the Galaxy S26 series at first, with Samsung eventually rolling it out to other Galaxy phones, including the Galaxy S25 series, Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Z Flip 7, and more later.

If this feature sounds familiar, that's because it is. Google recently debuted its own Notification Summaries feature for select Pixel phones, while Apple has offered a similar tool for the iPhone for more than a year. Now it looks like Samsung phones will get their version starting with the Galaxy S26 series.

The Galaxy S26 lineup is just a couple of months away now, and we've already heard a lot about the flagship series in recent weeks. Alongside the new Galaxy AI features, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is expected to come with a refined design and much faster wired and wireless charging speeds.