If you are the type of person who frequently forgets to check in on loved ones, your Samsung Galaxy phone might soon become your conscience. In the latest One UI 8.5 beta, Samsung appears to be testing a new “Now Brief” feature that gently—or perhaps shamefully—reminds you when it has been too long since you last spoke to your family.
Samsung has been testing the One UI 8.5 beta update for Galaxy S25 owners since last year, giving us our first look at what the mid-cycle software update has in store. While updates like this usually focus on stability or minor UI tweaks, early adopters have spotted a surprisingly human feature: an AI-powered nudge to call home.
According to Twitter/X user NirmalSri, the new feature appears within Samsung’s Now Brief and Now Bar interfaces. It displays a card titled “Say hello to your family” if the system detects a significant gap in communication.
In the shared screenshot, the prompt explicitly notes the duration of the silence—in this case, telling the user it had been 26 days since they last contacted a specific loved one. It then offers a quick shortcut to call them or a “Not now” button to dismiss the guilt for another day.
The feature was further corroborated by reliable Samsung leaker Ice Universe, who spotted the same notification on the Now Bar in One UI 8.5. In true Ice Universe fashion, the leaker jokingly admitted the feature called him out for not contacting his mother in 22 days.
How does it know?
While the feature is undeniably “neat,” it raises a few questions about implementation that the beta hasn’t quite answered yet:
- Identification: How does One UI identify “family”? Is it pulling from a specific “Family” group in your Contacts app, or is it using on-device AI to infer relationships based on names like “Mom” or “Dad”?
- Customization: Can users manually select which contacts trigger these reminders? (We imagine many users would prefer not to be reminded to call certain estranged relatives).
Regardless of the mechanics, this fits squarely into Samsung’s recent push to make the Galaxy interface feel more “live” and proactive rather than just a static launcher.
What else is in One UI 8.5?
The “guilt trip” notification isn’t the only change. The One UI 8.5 beta is shaping up to be a solid quality-of-life update. Other spotted features include:
- Torch indicator: A new visual indicator in the Now Bar when the flashlight is active (similar to the Dynamic Island implementation on iOS).
- Ad-block toggle: A native toggle to block apps with excessive ads, though details on how aggressive this is remain scarce.
- Power saving: Upgraded power-saving functionality to squeeze more juice out of the S25’s battery.
As with all beta features, there is a chance this could change or be removed before the final public release. But for now, if you are rocking a Galaxy S25 on the beta channel, you might want to make that call before your phone calls you out.
For those who don’t know if their devices are eligible for the update, here’s a comprehensive list of all Samsung Galaxy devices that will receive the One UI 8.5 upgrade when it rolls out.
