It’s also building a native family group system into One UI 8.5, suggesting a more comprehensive effort to offer account-level services that can stitch together Galaxy devices, Android Police reported.
The feature, spotted by independent tracker SammyGuru in in-app strings and screenshots, seems to be borrowing a lot from Google Family Group, but with the Samsung experience focused around Samsung accounts and apps.
If it ships as described, Samsung Family Groups would be the one space in Galaxy households to manage purchases, safety features, shared content, and health data — without grafting on Google’s layer. That could make for big gains among all-Samsung families and a power play to deepen ecosystem stickiness.
What Might Samsung Family Groups Do for Users?
Early signs point to the new hub allowing Samsung account holders to form a family, invite whomever they’d like, and then set common permissions. Screens show options to add Galaxy Store purchases, share a family payment method, track loved ones, and share photo albums and Samsung Health data.
That might look like a parent authorizing a child’s app purchase on a Galaxy Tab, a couple sharing a Gallery-curated family album, or siblings checking step counts from their Galaxy Watches in Samsung Health. Location sharing presumably connects with SmartThings Find, and payments would likely funnel through Samsung Wallet for identity checks and alerts.
One of them is health and wellness. Group competitions and metric sharing have been engagement drivers for wearables, and Samsung’s installed base of Galaxy Watch users makes this feature compelling in practice. A family-level perspective of activity, sleep, or heart rate alerts — thoughtfully permissioned — could be a differentiator.
How It Compares to Google Family Group Features
Google’s system around the household extends to purchases and a shared payment method in Play, calendar or Keep notes access, as well as location tracking through Family Link, shared Google One storage, family plans for YouTube Premium, and password sharing in Google Password Manager. It runs on Android devices of all stripes, irrespective of brand, and it’s deeply connected with Google services that many households already use.
Samsung’s strategy appears to be narrower but deeper in the parts of the stack it controls. Be on the lookout for more interaction with Galaxy Store approvals, Samsung Health, Gallery, SmartThings, and perhaps Knox-based parental controls. Where Google opts to provide breadth, Samsung can tailor for first-party apps and hardware extras that only exist on Galaxy devices.
The trade-off is portability. A Samsung-only family group won’t follow with as much fidelity to a Pixel or another Android brand, and that could make the switch less attractive. That tension — convenience versus flexibility — lies at the heart of any ecosystem play.
Ecosystem Lock-In or Genuine Utility for Families
Samsung has some strong incentives to bring a family layer to its services. Samsung, based in South Korea, usually holds around a fifth of the world’s smartphone volumes (according to IDC’s shipment trackers), which means a huge base that can cross-pollinate with watches, tablets, television sets, and smart home gear. You only need to do that once, and you raise the level of engagement for all those properties in the portfolio as a family experience.
The upside for users is simplicity. While it could be convenient to have them all in one place, I find that limiting some things (approvals, content sharing, and safety checks) can actually be easier than juggling four apps. If Samsung pulls off fast onboarding, clear roles for adults and children, and sensible defaults, the feature could become a daily anchor — especially in homes where Galaxy devices are already ubiquitous.
The risk is redundancy. A lot of families are already ensconced in Google’s system for subscriptions and storage. If Samsung Family Groups just copies those features without delivering new value — say, improved Galaxy Watch visibility for parents or more seamless SmartThings automation — it could find it hard to change consumer behavior.
Privacy, Parental Controls, and Family Safety
Family features sink or swim on trust. Be prepared to be bombarded with questions about who can view location and health data, how middle-school purchase approvals work, and whether younger kids may ask for alterations. Sure, fine-grained permissions and a log of which app is using what would be ideal — but at the very least, we have Samsung’s Knox security posture in Android.
The health component requires special attention.
Challenging one another to rings of activity is one thing. Variability in heart rate or sleep may be something a lot of families don’t want. Clear opt-ins, per-member visibility toggles, and data minimization will be as much of a feature to promote as shiny UX.
What to Watch Before One UI 8.5 Fully Arrives
Key questions remain. Will Samsung Family Group work with phones, tablets, watches, and TVs at launch? Is the common payment solution limited only to Galaxy Store items, or also in-app purchases and subscriptions? Can it peacefully coexist with Google Family Group for households that blend services?
Also keep an eye on: migration tools, regional availability, and age-verification flows. The more import options Samsung offers — shared albums, calendars, or existing family setups — the easier the adoption path will become. If not, a lot of them will remain on Google’s tracks.
For now, signs favor a thoughtful — if ultimately Samsung-first — family layer that might genuinely be useful to those living inside a Galaxy. Whether it becomes a must-have will depend on execution — and whether it delivers uniquely Samsung-y advantages that families can’t get elsewhere.
