According to SamMobile, Samsung is testing an AI-powered search assistant for its Galaxy Store app. The feature was spotted in the first beta version of One UI 8.5, which was released yesterday for the Galaxy S25 series. Visually, it mirrors the AI search tool Samsung introduced earlier this year in the One UI 8.0 Settings app, with a search box at the bottom of the screen featuring text with colorful hues. However, this Galaxy Store AI search isn’t actually functional in the current beta. Samsung could enable it in a future beta build, or it might even be held back entirely for the next-generation Galaxy S26 series.
The slow creep of AI search
Here’s the thing: this move is both predictable and a bit of a head-scratcher. On one hand, it makes total sense. Samsung is all-in on Galaxy AI, and putting a conversational search box into your app store is a logical next step after doing it in Settings. Imagine asking, “show me the best offline puzzle games” or “find apps like that photo editor I used to have” instead of typing disjointed keywords. It could genuinely improve discovery.
But on the other hand, I have to ask: is the Galaxy Store the best place for this? The Settings app made perfect sense because it’s a dense, menu-heavy labyrinth. An app store is already built around search and discovery, just in a more traditional way. The real challenge won’t be the AI itself, but making sure its recommendations are useful and not just glorified ads. Samsung will need to train it on real quality signals, not just which developer paid for promotion.
The waiting game for features
So now we play the beta-watching game. The fact that it’s visible but not working is a classic tease. It tells us Samsung is actively developing it, but they’re not ready for prime time. This happens all the time in software betas—features get spotted in code or in UI elements long before they go live. Sometimes they ship; sometimes they get scrapped.
Holding it back for the Galaxy S26 is a definite possibility. Samsung needs “new” software features to help sell next year’s phones, and a smarter Galaxy Store could be a minor bullet point on the spec sheet. Basically, they have to decide if this is a value-add for current flagship users or a carrot for the next wave of buyers. My bet? We’ll see it trickle out in a later One UI 8.5 beta. Rolling out AI features slowly across different apps is a great way to generate a steady stream of “Samsung adds AI to X” headlines throughout the year. And let’s be honest, they need those.
