According to Android Authority, Samsung has released the first One UI 8.5 beta for Galaxy S25 series owners. The beta introduces a major new feature called Storage Share, which lets you view files from your other Samsung phones, tablets, and PCs directly within the My Files app on your Galaxy phone. Early testing shows you can remotely browse another device’s storage, though quickly saving files to the local device isn’t seamless yet. The update also tweaks Quick Share, adding an AI feature that suggests sharing photos with recognized friends or family and a new option to restrict file receipts to devices signed into your Samsung account.
Storage Share is a step towards a real ecosystem
Look, every tech company talks about ecosystem. But here’s the thing: it’s usually just marketing fluff for a few half-baked integrations. Samsung‘s Storage Share, though, feels like a genuine attempt to make your devices feel like one unified system. Being able to pop into your My Files app and see your tablet’s downloads or your laptop’s documents? That’s useful. It basically turns your phone into a remote file explorer for your entire Samsung gadget collection.
Now, it’s not perfect from the jump. The report notes you can’t just quickly save a file from your Fold to your S25 Ultra; you have to go through a more manual process. And you can’t use Quick Share on those remote files either. So it’s more about access and viewing than instant, magical transfer. But that’s okay for a beta. The foundation is there. If they smooth out the save/share workflow, this could kill the need for a lot of cloud storage shuffling for Samsung loyalists.
Quick Share gets smarter (and more private)
The Quick Share updates are arguably just as interesting. An AI that recognizes faces in your photos and suggests you share them? That’s a clever, context-aware trick we’ve seen from Google, but having it built into the system share sheet is smart. The big question, of course, is privacy. Is this face recognition happening on-device or in the cloud? Android Authority hopes it’s local, and frankly, so should you. Samsung’s been pushing on-device AI hard, so this would be a perfect fit.
And the new sharing restriction is a quiet win for security. Being able to limit Quick Share receipts to only devices logged into your Samsung account is a great option. Before, you could restrict to Google accounts, but if you’re deep in Samsung’s world, this is a more logical fence for your personal sharing garden. It’s these little controls that make a platform feel considered.
The bigger picture for Samsung
So what’s Samsung really doing here? They’re building walls. Not walls to keep users in, necessarily, but walls to make their garden so convenient that leaving feels like a hassle. When your files, your sharing, and your workflow seamlessly connect across your phone, tablet, PC, and TV, why would you switch to a brand that breaks that chain? This is how you build sticky, long-term customers.
It also shows that the real battleground isn’t just specs anymore. It’s the connective tissue. Apple’s Handoff and Continuity are legendary for this. Google is trying with its own cross-device services. Samsung, with its massive device portfolio, is now seriously playing the game. If they execute well, Storage Share could be a killer feature that doesn’t get a flashy keynote slide but ends up being something people use every single day. And those are the best kind.
