Finished reading? Continue your journey in AI with these hand-picked guides and tutorials.
Boost your workflow with our browser-based tools
Share your expertise with our readers. TrueSolvers accepts in-depth, independently researched articles on technology, AI, and software development from qualified contributors.
TrueSolvers is an independent technology publisher with a professional editorial team. Every article is independently researched, sourced from primary documentation, and cross-checked before publication.
Samsung Browser is about to get three meaningful upgrades tied to One UI 9, and the least-discussed one is the most strategically significant. While most coverage of the update focuses on multi-window browsing and the Ask AI assistant, the architecture powering Ask AI puts Samsung Browser in territory that Chrome on Android does not currently occupy. For Galaxy device owners who assumed Chrome had already won the mobile browser AI race, the reality is more interesting than that.
The most immediately visible change coming to Samsung Browser is the ability to run multiple independent browser sessions at the same time. Instead of juggling everything inside a single tab-filled window, users will be able to open separate browser instances side by side, each maintaining its own browsing state independently.
SammyGuru's hands-on testing of a pre-release One UI 9 build confirmed the feature working on a Galaxy S21 FE, a standard handset rather than a foldable. That detail matters: it establishes that multi-window is not a Galaxy Z Fold exclusive. Foldable devices do get an additional capability, with Z Fold hardware supporting three simultaneous browser windows while standard phones get two.
This places Samsung Browser roughly on par with Chrome for Android, which added its own multi-window capability in recent updates. Samsung is not breaking new ground on the concept. What makes the Samsung implementation notable is how it fits the broader One UI ecosystem: multi-instance support already exists for apps like Samsung Notes and My Files, and the browser is now extending the same pattern. For One UI users, the mental model for juggling multiple browser sessions is the same one they already use for those apps.
Whether Samsung will allow three simultaneous windows on all large-screen devices or restrict the third window to Z Fold hardware specifically remains unconfirmed in current pre-release documentation. The hands-on screenshots show the feature clearly on the Z Fold 7's larger display, and Samsung may tune this behavior before the final One UI 9 release.
On the surface, Samsung Browser and Chrome appear to be running parallel AI strategies. Both browsers now have multi-window. Both have AI assistants. The AI story on Android, though, is more asymmetric than those surface similarities suggest.
Chrome's AI integration has moved quickly on desktop. Google's blog post announcing the update in late January 2026 described a persistent Gemini sidebar that can analyze content across the current tab and multiple other open tabs simultaneously, with integration across Gmail, Calendar, YouTube, and Maps. That rollout was explicitly for desktop users in the US, with mobile listed as a future phase. The agentic "auto-browse" feature, which handles multi-step tasks autonomously, is limited to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.
On Android, the picture is different. Google's own Chrome Help documentation for Android states plainly: "For now, Gemini in Chrome is not available on Android phones or tablets." Android users who want Gemini assistance while browsing Chrome are directed to use Gemini as their system assistant, accessed by holding the power button. That is a device-level overlay, not a native browser integration.
Chrome on Android and Samsung Browser may both have multi-window now, but the AI picture is more asymmetric than it first appears: Google's own Chrome Help confirms Gemini in Chrome is not available natively inside the Android app. When Samsung puts Ask AI directly inside Samsung Browser on Android, it is not catching up to Chrome. It is building something Chrome on Android does not currently offer at all.
Whether Chrome's full Gemini sidebar will reach Android before Samsung Browser's One UI 9 rollout is an open question; Google has not announced a specific Android timeline beyond "coming soon."
Ask AI is built directly into the Samsung Browser interface rather than sitting above it as a separate overlay. When a user opens it, the feature reads the content of the current page and pulls from browsing history to personalize its responses. The conversation happens in a persistent panel with threading support, meaning follow-up questions continue in the same session rather than starting fresh each time.
The feature includes shortcut buttons that surface the most common use cases without requiring the user to type: Summarize condenses the current page, Translate handles language conversion, and Read highlights aloud converts key text to audio. Beyond those shortcuts, the panel handles open-ended questions in the same way a standalone AI assistant would, with the advantage that it already has the page content as context without requiring the user to paste anything.
One detail that separates Ask AI from a simple search integration: the AI uses browsing history as part of its context, not just the current page. That means it can answer questions that connect what you are reading now to what you read previously, functioning closer to a persistent assistant than a per-page summarizer. Most AI overlays layered on top of browsers operate within a single-session scope; Ask AI's history integration gives it continuity across sessions that tab-level AI tools do not have.
We note that Ask AI currently carries a beta label in pre-release One UI 9 builds, and Samsung may adjust or expand its capabilities before the feature reaches the public. SammyGuru's testing also raised the possibility that Ask AI could arrive as a standalone Samsung Browser update through the Play Store or Galaxy Store ahead of the full One UI 9 rollout, which means some users may get access earlier than the foldable launch timeline suggests.
Anyone who downloads Samsung Browser on a non-Samsung Android phone and expects to use Ask AI may be disappointed. The reason is not a deliberate restriction on Samsung's part so much as an architectural reality.
The Ask AI feature is powered by Perplexity. But Perplexity's presence on Galaxy devices is not a standard app integration of the kind available to any Android developer. SamMobile's coverage of the Galaxy AI announcement confirms that Galaxy AI operates through framework-level connections across the device, working at the system level to understand context and coordinate across apps rather than running inside any individual one. Samsung's availability disclaimer applies: Galaxy AI features vary depending on region, OS version, device model, and carrier.
9to5Google's coverage of the Samsung-Perplexity announcement confirms this is the first time Samsung granted system-level OS access to a company outside its own first-party services and Google. That access lets Perplexity read from and write to native Samsung apps including Notes, Calendar, Gallery, Clock, and Reminders. Perplexity's Chief Business Officer called this arrangement "the end of the single walled-garden assistant." The access also powers Bixby's real-time web search on the S26.
Samsung has not officially confirmed whether Ask AI in the browser will be restricted to Samsung hardware or available on any Android device running Samsung Browser; the system-level architecture strongly suggests the former, but that distinction has not been stated publicly.
Perplexity confirmed its status as the first non-Google company to receive OS-level access in Samsung's One UI, and Samsung's announcement confirmed that Galaxy AI operates through framework-level connections at the device level rather than inside individual apps. Those two facts point to the same conclusion: Ask AI pulls its depth of browser integration from infrastructure that lives in One UI's framework layer, not in the Samsung Browser app itself. A user running Samsung Browser on a Pixel phone has the app. They do not have the framework underneath it. The practical implication is that Ask AI's full functionality, including history-aware context and native app connectivity, will almost certainly be available only on Galaxy hardware running One UI.
The third discovery in pre-release One UI 9 builds is a toggle labeled "Enable Cross Device Resume" found in Samsung Browser's debug settings. The Cross Device Resume toggle does not yet function in any pre-release build we are aware of, and Samsung has provided no technical description distinguishing it from the existing Continue on Other Devices feature.
That distinction is worth thinking about. Samsung already has a cross-device browsing handoff feature on mobile: Continue on Other Devices lets users tap the Recents button on a second Samsung phone to pick up a browser session from the first. The feature works, but it is manual. On the PC side, Samsung Internet for PC launched in beta in October 2025 with automatic sync of bookmarks, history, and Samsung Pass credentials across devices, and Samsung described it as "a gateway to ambient AI across the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem." Users are prompted when switching between PC and mobile to resume where they left off.
A third layer labeled Cross Device Resume could mean faster or more seamless session transfer, automatic handoff without a manual tap, or something tied to the "ambient AI" framing from the PC launch. With no functional implementation to examine, all of that is speculative. Samsung may clarify the feature's scope during the One UI 9 beta.
The beta itself is expected in May 2026, beginning with the Galaxy S26 series and then expanding to the S25 lineup. Samsung's internal One UI 9 testing is already running on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 hardware, with the stable release expected around July 2026 when those foldables ship. One UI 9 is based on Android 17, and One UI 8.5 is still rolling out to existing devices as of mid-March 2026, meaning the browser features described here are still several months from reaching most users.
A feature that reads your browsing history to answer questions and a feature that gives you granular control over how long that history is retained are not in conflict; they are the same design.
Ask AI ships with three data retention configurations. Users can set it to delete all activity at the end of each session, keeping nothing between browser restarts. The middle option retains activity for up to six months. A third control, an opt-in toggle that is disabled by default, allows Samsung to analyze past questions, responses, and browsing history to improve the service. No data goes to Samsung for improvement purposes unless the user turns that toggle on.
SammyGuru's pre-release build testing confirmed the session-only option exists alongside the six-month retention cap, with the Samsung analysis toggle visible and disabled by default. Samsung has also stated that personal data processed through Galaxy AI is not used for model training purposes, which applies to the cloud-side inference that handles more complex Ask AI queries. Some processing happens on-device; more demanding requests go to cloud servers, following the same hybrid architecture that underlies other Galaxy AI features.
What makes this notable is timing. These controls are present in pre-beta builds, before any regulatory pressure specific to the feature and before any public feedback. Adding opt-out mechanisms retroactively after a feature launches has become the industry default pattern. Samsung has built them in from the first builds available for examination.
This suggests Samsung is treating privacy controls as a feature differentiator rather than a regulatory afterthought, but whether the data handling fully matches that positioning will only be assessable after independent review following the public launch.
Whether the actual data handling post-launch fully matches this privacy-first architecture is something only independent audits after the public release will be able to confirm.
For Galaxy device owners who already use Samsung Browser, the One UI 9 update represents a genuine capability shift rather than incremental polish. Ask AI's history-aware context and its backing by the same OS-level Perplexity infrastructure that powers the Galaxy S26 puts it in a different category from Chrome on Android's current AI offerings. Multi-window support brings Samsung Browser to parity with Chrome on that front, and the foldable advantage of three simultaneous windows adds something Chrome does not match.
This pattern, where functional capability additions matter more than surface-level feature parity, mirrors what the broader browser market has shown repeatedly. Mozilla's experience with Firefox is instructive: four major redesigns since 2009 failed to reverse Firefox's market share decline, because redesigns alone do not give users a reason to switch. What changes user behavior is added capability. Samsung Browser is not redesigning its interface; it is adding a native AI assistant that Android users cannot access inside Chrome at all. That functional gap is the kind of differentiator that actually affects browsing choices.
For Android users on non-Samsung hardware, the relevant question is whether Ask AI requires Galaxy infrastructure to function fully. The architecture strongly points toward yes, though Samsung has not confirmed this formally. Samsung Browser is freely available on the Play Store, but the most capable new feature may be effectively hardware-gated.
The timeline for all of this runs through May 2026 for beta access on the S26, and July 2026 for stable delivery on the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8. Ask AI may arrive earlier as a standalone browser update. Users on older Galaxy hardware will receive One UI 9 on a rolling schedule after the foldable launch. For now, the features described here reflect a confirmed direction from a credible pre-release build, with the specific implementation still subject to change before public release.