Chrome owns mobile browsing. 3.83 billion monthly active users globally, 68-69% market share on mobile, 89% on Android. Those numbers are brutal for anyone competing in the space. Samsung Browser has carved out its spot anyway it comes pre-installed on every Galaxy device, anyone can grab it free from the Play Store, and it offers things Chrome still doesn’t, like extension support and a deeper set of customization tools.
One UI 9 is bringing a few additions that are worth paying attention to.
Multi-window browsing is the headline feature. You get two browser windows running side by side instead of bouncing between tabs Android Authority shared screenshots of it working. On bigger hardware like the Z Fold 7, it apparently handles three windows at once. Chrome on Android already does something similar, so this likely isn’t exclusive to Samsung’s software. More of a catch-up move than anything groundbreaking, but a useful one for people who actually use the Samsung Browser as their daily driver.
Ask AI is the more interesting addition. Perplexity is reportedly powering it. SammyGutu got a short video of the feature running, and what it shows is an AI that reads the page you’re on and generates answers and context from it. Not by scanning the screen visually it’s hooked directly into the browser and pulls data from it. Browsing history included. Potentially personal information too. Samsung hasn’t explained how they’re handling the privacy angle yet. The video does show a toggle that controls how long activity data gets kept, which suggests they’re at least thinking about it. Given how deeply the feature ties into the system layer, there’s a decent chance Ask AI will only work on Samsung phones rather than any Android device that has the browser installed.
A third discovery is more cryptic. A leaked build turned up a toggle called “Enable Cross Device Resume.” It doesn’t do anything yet. The name suggests it might instantly move an active browsing session between a device phone to tablet, tablet to phone, but Samsung already has a “Continue on other device” option, so what makes this different isn’t clear. Could be a faster, more seamless version of the same idea. Could be something else entirely. No way to know until Samsung talks about it or the feature actually starts working.
Timeline: One UI 9 Beta is expected in May, hitting the Galaxy S26 series first, then the S25 lineup. The finished version should ship with the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 when they arrive this summer.
