Samsung’s One UI 9.5 Makes AI Widgets the New Battleground

AI widgets are about to redefine the Samsung home screen

Samsung’s My Custom Widget in One UI 9.5 refers to an AI-assisted custom widget creation feature that lets users describe in plain language what information and layout they want on their Samsung home screen, then automatically generates a functional widget from that request without any coding or manual configuration. This is not another cosmetic theme tweak; it is Samsung’s clearest move yet to turn AI widget design into the core of how One UI 9.5 widgets work. A leaked One UI 9.5 build lists “My Custom Widget” alongside existing widgets, hinting that every Galaxy owner may soon be able to design tailored widgets with text prompts instead of digging through static presets. If that happens, Samsung home screen personalization stops being about choosing tiles and starts being about describing your ideal daily dashboard.

From Google’s Create My Widget to Samsung’s answer

The spark for all of this comes from Google, not Samsung. Back in May, Google publicly demoed Android’s upcoming Create My Widget feature, powered by Gemini Intelligence. According to Google, Create My Widget can “take in a plain language description of what the widget should do, figure out how to do it and place the widget right on your homescreen”. That demo set the precedent for AI widget design: describe a need, get a ready-to-use widget. Samsung’s leaked One UI 9.5 build shows a near-parallel idea labeled My Custom Widget. On the surface, it looks like Samsung either plans to adopt Google’s Gemini-driven system or build its own equivalent on top of the same intelligence stack. Either way, Google has framed the rules of this new game, and Samsung is clearly unwilling to let Pixel-owning power users have all the fun.

What AI-powered custom widget creation means in practice

For ordinary users, the appeal is obvious: instead of living with Samsung’s fixed widget catalog, One UI 9.5 widgets become flexible tools that adapt to your workflow. Google’s Create My Widget is designed to accept natural-language requests and output a working widget tailored to that description. The leak suggests Samsung’s My Custom Widget will follow the same pattern, offering a mix of preset options and user-generated layouts that start from a simple prompt like “show my next three calendar events and current battery percentage”. When available, this custom widget option will let users choose from preset combinations or generate their own by describing what they want. Initially, support appears confined to native Samsung apps, but that limitation is almost guaranteed to be temporary. If third-party apps are later included, the Samsung home screen turns into a live canvas where information from across your phone can be arranged exactly how you think.

Samsung’s strategic response to Android’s AI-first future

The timing here is not accidental. Google has said Create My Widget will ship to select Pixel and Galaxy devices by the end of the summer, effectively forcing Samsung to decide whether it wants to be a passive client of Gemini Intelligence or an active co-author of Android’s personalization story. The leak shows Samsung choosing the latter, wrapping the capability in the One UI 9.5 experience as My Custom Widget. The Galaxy Z Fold8 and Z Flip8 already support Gemini Intelligence and launched with One UI 9.0, and they are expected to be among the first to gain this feature once they move to One UI 9.5. A broader rollout is tipped for early next year, when One UI 9.5 is set to debut with new flagships. This is Samsung staking out its territory: if AI is going to shape how Android looks and feels, One UI will not be an afterthought—it will be the stage.

The next era of Samsung home screens: designed by you, built by AI

Taken together, My Custom Widget and Create My Widget mark a shift from “pick a widget” to “describe a workflow.” Instead of juggling multiple tiles or hunting for niche third-party widgets, you will tell your phone what matters to you and let AI assemble it into a single glanceable surface. While details like third-party support and potential Gemini subscription requirements remain open questions, the direction is clear: One UI 9.5 widgets will be defined less by Samsung’s designers and more by the prompts you type or speak. That is a profound change in power dynamics on the Samsung home screen. Google may have lit the fuse with Gemini Intelligence, but Samsung’s decision to bake My Custom Widget directly into One UI 9.5 suggests a future where your home screen is no longer a grid of compromises—it is a live, AI-assembled reflection of how you live and work.