Samsung is probably working on its most aggressive anti-distraction tool yet

Samsung may be readying a new productivity-focused feature for One UI 9, and it seems like the company wants to help users fight distractions at the network level instead of relying solely on app timers.

We discovered the code for this experimental Focus feature in One UI 9 as part of Samsung’s Connectivity Labs, a hidden Wi-Fi menu on Samsung phones that appears after repeatedly tapping the “Intelligent Wi-Fi” button in Settings.

The code strings reveal that the feature is designed to block internet access to distracting app categories like social media, games, streaming apps, and others. The most telling set of strings we found about the feature is titled “Network Management for Concurrency”, which describes the tool in detail.

This wording strongly suggests that Samsung is developing a system that can selectively restrict Internet access for distracting apps or categories of apps. Unlike traditional digital wellbeing tools that simply limit screen time, this one appears to work through direct network control.

The code also references several predefined restriction buckets, including:

• browser
• game
• Social
• streaming
• Other
• preset

This potentially means that users can block entire categories of apps instead of manually selecting them one by one. For example, you can disable social media and streaming access during work hours while maintaining network access to productivity apps.

Interestingly, Samsung is also building this feature with some security measures. We found several strings related to setting and managing a six-digit PIN, including prompts for PIN confirmation, recovery, reset, and incorrect entry handling.

These strings suggest that the feature could not only target users who want to increase their productivity, but also serve as a parental-control tool to prevent children from disabling network restrictions without permission.

The strings further mention a “downtime” mode with configurable start and end times. This can allow restrictions to activate automatically during a set period of time.

At the moment, there is no guarantee that Samsung will release this feature publicly, especially since it currently appears to be part of its experimental lab section. Still, the idea is interesting because it goes beyond the app timer and focus mode already available on most Android phones.