Samsung has been steadily integrating artificial intelligence into its Galaxy S flagship series, moving beyond just hardware improvements to focus on software and AI-driven features. While the Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is grabbing headlines, several other software enhancements are worth noting. Features like Gemini screen automation and an upgraded Audio Eraser represent modern territory for Samsung phones – capabilities not even found on the latest Google Pixel devices. But the innovations don’t stop there.
Alongside these One UI 8.5 features, Samsung has quietly rolled out new notification features powered by Galaxy AI, designed to build managing and reading notifications on the Galaxy S26 significantly easier. These features, while subtle, offer a genuinely useful improvement to the daily smartphone experience, streamlining information and prioritizing what matters most.
Notification Summary: Condensing the Noise
Before the Galaxy S26 series launched, rumors circulated about Samsung adding a notification summary feature to One UI. Whereas it didn’t appear in the One UI 8.5 beta for the Galaxy S25 series, it finally arrived with the Galaxy S26 lineup. This feature intelligently condenses lengthy notifications into a more readable format. For example, a flurry of messages in a group chat or a lengthy email will be summarized into a concise blurb displayed in the notification center, allowing users to quickly grasp the key information without fully opening the app.
According to Samsung, the notification summary feature currently supports a wide range of languages, including English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Polish, Vietnamese, and Hindi. It’s too compatible with popular messaging apps like WhatsApp, Google Messages, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Telegram, among others. Android Central provides further details on the feature’s capabilities.
While powered by AI, Samsung acknowledges that summaries may occasionally be inaccurate. However, initial experiences suggest the feature is generally reliable. One user noted that it took over a week for summaries to start appearing on their Galaxy S26 Ultra after enabling the feature, and there’s currently no manual toggle to force summaries for specific apps. Samsung also states the feature may be unavailable when battery levels are low or power saving mode is activated.
Prioritize Notifications: AI Learns Your Habits
In addition to summaries, Samsung has introduced the “Prioritize notifications” feature in One UI 8.5. This feature leverages AI to learn user behavior – which apps are opened first and which notifications receive the most interaction – to intelligently sort notifications accordingly. When picking up your phone, the most relevant alerts are surfaced first, ensuring you see what matters most without scrolling through a lengthy list.
The Prioritize notifications feature shares the same multilingual support as the notification summary feature. Importantly, Samsung emphasizes that all notification processing occurs on-device, safeguarding user data and ensuring privacy. Tom’s Guide highlights this commitment to on-device processing as a key benefit.
How to Enable the New Features
- Open the Settings app on your Galaxy device.
- Tap Notifications and then select Notification highlights.
- In Notification highlights, you will see both features: Prioritize notifications and Summarize notifications.
- Open each section and enable the toggle for both features.
It’s important to note that Galaxy AI features must be enabled on your device for these notification enhancements to function. It may also take a few hours or even days for the features to fully activate after enabling them.
When notification summaries are active, a three-line icon with an arrow will appear next to the app’s notification, indicating a summarized message. Users can still access the full notification content by swiping down to view the original message or email.
These notification features represent some of the most understated yet genuinely useful additions to the Galaxy AI suite with One UI 8.5. They operate quietly in the background, enhancing the user experience without being intrusive, and prioritize user privacy by processing data on-device. While not yet perfect – the ability to manually enable summaries for specific apps would be a welcome addition – these features demonstrate Samsung’s commitment to leveraging AI to improve everyday smartphone interactions. Hopefully, Samsung will continue to refine these features in future One UI updates.
As Samsung continues to integrate AI across its devices, expect further refinements to these features and the introduction of new AI-powered tools designed to simplify and enhance the mobile experience. The focus on on-device processing is a trend to watch, as it balances functionality with user privacy.
What are your thoughts on these new notification features? Share your experiences and feedback in the comments below.
