There’s a feature in One UI 8.5 that says more than it seems. It’s called, in Samsung’s internal nomenclature, ‘voice settings assistant’: you ask the phone why the screen doesn’t turn off, and it explains which setting is causing it. You ask it why the volume goes down on its own, and it tells you where the setting is that controls it.
In it briefing of the Galaxy S26 They mentioned it almost in passing, as a nice detail among bigger and more important news such as the 3 AIs in 1, or the spectacular screen and its privacy mode. But this also deserves some attention.
For years, learning to use a cell phone was part of the deal. You scanned the menus, memorized where things were, got used to their quirks, and cursed when you changed brands and couldn’t find anything. The instruction manual disappeared many years ago because it was assumed that phones were already intuitive enough not to need it. And for a while, they have been.
The problem is that phones have not stopped growing. Every generation, and I’m looking at both iOS and Android, adds settings, modes, features, and layers of customization. One UI 8.5 brings, in the AI section alone, more than a dozen new functions. The Christmas tree effect: We accumulate things without getting rid of the previous ones and we end up with an unruly mammoth.
The operating system of a modern mobile phone has thousands of options spread out in menus that are sometimes where you would expect and sometimes not. And when something behaves unexpectedly, finding the reason can take several minutes of searching or a simple query to Google. Or ChatGPT.
Samsung has decided that the solution to this complexity is not to simplify, but add a layer to help you navigate it. The mobile phone no longer expects you to understand it: it explains how it works if you ask it.
It is a pragmatic move. Manufacturers have been in a race for years to add functions that justify the annual update, and retracing that path would mean cutting features that some users do use. So the solution is not to remove, but to translate. An AI that acts as a guide within the device itself.
Google already has similar functions in pure Android and the Siri that the prophets promised maybe one day it will come. What Samsung does with One UI 8.5 is go a step further: it not only takes you to the setting, but explains why that setting is affecting the behavior that misses you. It’s the difference between giving you directions and explaining the map to you.
The question that remains is how far this goes. If the phone needs an AI to explain itself, The next logical step is for that AI to start making decisions for you.: not only explain why the screen does not turn off, but also turn it off when it detects that you are not using it. Some of the agentic upgrades that Samsung has presented in the S26 are already going in that direction.
The cell phone that asks you what you want to do and the cell phone that deduces what you want to do are closer than they seem.
Featured image | Xataka
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