Samsung’s ecosystem has evolved fantastically over the last few years. Native on-device global search has become one of the most vital capabilities for finding absolutely everything on your phone without having to navigate through complex folders and wasting your precious time. The Finder tool has always fulfilled this role perfectly, but the new One UI 8.5 version has just made it even faster and more intuitive. In other words, searching for apps on your cell phone has become much easier.
Search for apps on your cell phone? The end of the app drawer
Normally, you need to swipe the screen and open the application drawer to access this search feature. From there, you can see suggested apps, settings topics, recent searches and even use voice commands. Furthermore, this smart search is not just limited to your internal storage, it automatically expands to online content, web results and also to the Play Store and Galaxy Store.
Therefore, executing these searches is incredibly fast and accurate, all thanks to Samsung’s continuous algorithm optimizations. Therefore, with the launch of the One UI 8.5 interface on the brand new Galaxy S26 series, the South Korean brand introduced a dedicated button for the Finder. This new feature launches the feature with a single tap, without having to open the application drawer at any time.
How to activate this shortcut on the home screen
However, this revolutionary functionality may not be activated from the factory on your device immediately after the update. Therefore, you will have to turn it on manually in the initial settings to be able to use it. To do this, just go to the Home screen settings and tap the switch in front of the option to show Finder on the Home screen. Consequently, the magic shortcut will appear on your main page, ready to be used and expanding your navigation options.
Full customization tailored to your needs
To top it off, the Finder is fully customizable. You can check and adjust all of its options by accessing the tool’s own settings through the three-dot menu located outside the search bar. On the other hand, you can activate or deactivate specific search sources to clean up your visual results and only see the content that really interests you. Similarly, you can also manage personal data intelligence and delve into data sharing permissions for additional services.
In short, there is currently no official confirmation as to whether this incredibly handy shortcut will make its way to older devices with the stable version of One UI 8.5. Now we can only wait for an official statement from the brand about the future of this tool in previous models.
