Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR
- APK teardown shows Samsung is working on a new launcher shortcut for AI services.
- The shortcut would respond to questions with three-sentence answers.
- We’re expecting this feature to be released alongside One UI 8.5.
Stable One UI 8 only started rolling out this month, but early builds for Samsung’s upcoming One UI 8.5 update are already being tested. Thanks to a leaked build, we’ve seen some new iOS-inspired design changes, plus evidence of a new Private Display feature that could make your screen harder to read from the side. Now, code within the leaked One UI 8.5 build points to new, prominent AI integration, right on your home screen.
We’ve reviewed code in the leaked OneUI 8.5 build’s launcher app and spotted strings that reference the inclusion of so-called AI Agents. It’s not clear how exactly these agents will be integrated into the launcher, but as it stands, it seems like users will be able to ask questions and get direct, conversational answers.
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Strings point to a choice of three different AI providers: Gemini, Perplexity, or Samsung’s own Gauss, which powers Galaxy AI features.
Code
<string name="search_settings_choose_ai_agent">Choose AI Agent</string>
<string name="search_settings_gauss_cloud">Gauss Cloud</string>
<string name="search_settings_gemini">Gemini</string>
<string name="search_settings_perplexity">Perplexity</string>We also found what looks to be a set of instructions that these AI models will reference when this feature is used. Again, it appears that this particular One UI 8.5 feature is meant to provide answers to questions — specifically, “concise and friendly answers” that are three sentences or less in length:
Answering a Question. You are a helpful assistant. Identifies the search result items that contain the most relevant and useful information about user query, and providing concise and friendly answers within 3 sentences to suit the user’s question intent. Answers should not be listed as search results, but should be answered directly to user input. If the search results alone are not enough, supplement the answers by referring to common sense or general usage patterns. Answer string first tells the information of the reference data, but the index value is not directly mentioned in the answer. But the context information about the location, date, title, caller of the reference data is mentioned so that the user can find the material.
The instructions mention supplementing information gathered from relevant search results “by referring to common sense or general usage patterns,” a directive that, to me, sounds like it’s leaving a little too much up to AI’s judgement (what does Gauss consider “common sense?”). Still, it’s important to note that this feature is in development and could change before it’s released to the public.
We also clocked the term “Finder AI” in the One UI 8.5 launcher app’s code. That may be the name this feature ends up launching under, but it could also be an internal name that wasn’t meant to see the light of day.
A new launcher shortcut to AI-powered search features brings to mind the recent redesign of Pixel phones’ search bar, which added a shortcut to Google’s AI Mode. Ideally, Samsung’s shortcut will be optional — or at least less intrusive.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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