With One UI 8.5 officially in active development, the leaks just won’t stop coming for Samsung’s next update. In addition to some visual changes for folders and a new device sharing program for families, One UI 8.5 is also going to lean on AI to make your phone smarter at swapping between Wi-Fi and cellular data.
As reported by SammyGuru, Samsung is adding a whole host of new connectivity options into One UI 8.5, but by far the most eye-catching is a new “Switch to mobile data with AI” menu. According to the options currently listed in this development build, Intelligent Link Assessment allows One UI to “learn from Wi-Fi link data” to “intelligently” hop off of Wi-Fi as needed, while Intelligent Network Switch uses “handover history along the user’s movement route” to make the decision as needed.
Just from these menu options alone, it seems pretty clear that “AI,” in this case, is on the machine-learning side of things, rather than being some kind of gen-AI-powered Wi-Fi assistant. AI might be a bit of a buzzword here, but in theory, specifically leaning on user data to allow your device to know when a Wi-Fi signal is too weak to be usable — or to simply recognize when a user disables Wi-Fi in order to swap to their cellular connection — could make for a much better experience.
Obviously, we’d have to try this out for ourselves before making a judgement call, but any solution that would stop my personal devices from trying to connect to my router from my garage gets a tentative thumbs-up from me.
Elsewhere, Samsung has refined how folders appear on the home screen, adding a layered icon to the bottom-right portion of the folder to better represent a group of more than nine applications. It’s a simple touch, and one that comes with additional customization options for folder opacity as well.
Finally, Samsung is working on something called “Family Device Sharing” for One UI 8.5. The app is inaccessible in the current build, but according to its description, you can use it to “easily connect and share files, screens, cameras, storage, and more with your family.” That doesn’t sound quite like the Family Link clone that its name suggests; rather, this seems like Samsung building an infrastructure for families to easily connect between their individual devices. We’ll need to wait and see how it functions once this update arrives with the Galaxy S26 series next year.
More on One UI 8.5:
- Samsung’s One UI 8.5 lock screen refresh has blurred notifications, new clock styles
- Samsung will copy and improve on Pixel’s Quick Settings with next major Galaxy update [Video]
- Samsung’s next big Android update keeps leaking with more AI and Liquid Glass vibes
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