A Samsung app that no one uses is getting a strikingly useful upgrade! The code found in leaked One UI 8.5 firmware suggests the “short summary” functionality will be available within the My Files app, and it can create quick summaries for PDF and TXT files even before you open them.
What the One UI 8.5 firmware teases about file summaries
Strings found in the One UI 8.5 build referred to a Short Summary menu item, an option for “Show file summaries,” and error messages that pop up if a file cannot be summarized or is marked as inappropriate. That suggests an opt-in toggle and lightweight previews that surface directly within list or grid views, making it possible to pick the right file at a glance.
- What the One UI 8.5 firmware teases about file summaries
- Will summaries run on-device or rely on the cloud?
- Why quick file summaries in My Files could matter
- How file summaries in My Files might work in practice
- Rollout timing and which Samsung devices may support it
- How this approach compares to rivals from Google and Apple
- Bottom line on Samsung’s My Files summaries for PDFs
Appropriately enough, the feature is limited to PDFs and plain text files—two formats that make up the bulk of day-to-day reading. Here’s a pragmatic starting point:
- PDFs: contracts, handouts, manuals, and research papers
- TXT: logs, notes, and exports
Will summaries run on-device or rely on the cloud?
The code never mentions AI, but summarization is nearly always a process based in machine learning. Samsung’s recent push with Galaxy AI covers both on-device and cloud processing, already featuring tools like Note Assist and webpage summarization. The company also offers a privacy control that enables users to restrict certain functions from being processed in the cloud.
If My Files does lean on on-device models, you could see instant summaries for small and medium documents and tighter privacy. A cloud solution would probably be able to process much bigger files and more elaborate layouts, but at the expense of a brief upload and transfer. Either way, the inclusion of error messages indicates sane guardrails and graceful degradation when a summary could not otherwise be generated.
Why quick file summaries in My Files could matter
Fast document previews can lead to real-time savings. According to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute, knowledge workers spend almost one-fifth of their day searching for information and collecting it; with each step that requires fewer taps per file, the savings across a workweek can add up. Adobe has also stated that hundreds of billions of PDFs are opened each year in its apps, highlighting just how ubiquitous the format continues to be.
Students, field workers, and those who have multiple revisions to juggle will profit most. As opposed to having to open five closely named PDFs to find the correct invoice or lecture handout, a two-sentence excerpt in the file list would surface the most important topic, date, or action item instantly.
How file summaries in My Files might work in practice
Summary details will surface below file names, or in a detail pane, similar to how image dimensions or metadata sometimes do today. Samsung could cache summaries so that they can be viewed offline, and refresh only when files change in case the summary is outdated, which would ensure no battery drain or network bandwidth consumption.
There will likely be limits. These monsters cannot be tamed. Some files will only yield one or two lines no matter how many pages we process. Why?
- Ultra-high-res PDFs
- Scans with very few words
- Heavily encrypted/DRM documents
The warning for “inappropriate content” is a hint that Samsung will use content safety filters of some sort to prevent creating previews for sensitive or unsafe humongous files.
Rollout timing and which Samsung devices may support it
The feature isn’t mentioned in the previous leaked changelog of One UI 8.5, so it might be behind a server-side flag or arrive at a later stage of testing.
If Samsung sticks to its latest form, the best-performing devices would be newer flagships packing more capable NPUs — read: the Galaxy S24 series — with wider support filtering down to recent mid-range fare.
Enterprise deployments may also care. An OS-level, offline-capable summary app could have some traction in regulated industries if IT admins can control cloud access and how data is handled via device management policies.
How this approach compares to rivals from Google and Apple
Competitors already deliver AI summaries, though typically within particular apps. Google’s Workspace can encapsulate Docs and Gmail, and Microsoft’s Copilot can sift through files saved on OneDrive. Apple’s new intelligence features summarize notifications, emails, and pages across apps. The move into the core file browser is a smart one, in that it applies to any local or cloud-synced file My Files can see, not just documents opened in a given editor.
Bottom line on Samsung’s My Files summaries for PDFs
Compelling snippets in My Files would seem more like proactivity on the part of One UI, reducing friction from something we all do every day: dredging through documents to find the one we need. The details of implementation will be important, especially around privacy and performance, but the trend is clear. Samsung is making its file manager the smart front door to your documents, and it looks like PDFs may never be quite the same.
