When Samsung launched the Galaxy S24, it promised to bring some of the phone’s flagship AI features to older Galaxy handsets. According to a recent announcement, we now know exactly when that will be.
Almost all major mobile devices that Samsung launched in 2023 will get a sprinkling of the company’s new Galaxy AI technology “from the end of March,” the Korean company has now confirmed. The list of devices includes the Galaxy S23 series, S23 FE, both of the latest Fold and Flip handsets and the Tab S9 series.
This story was updated on February 26th. Update below.
“This is only the beginning of Galaxy AI, as we plan to bring the experience to over 100 million Galaxy users within 2024.” TM Roh, Samsung’s President and head of mobile explained in a blog post.
This is an interesting move for Samsung because it is ostensibly handing over flagship Galaxy S24 features, to existing users, for free. These AI tools—Live Translate, Circle to Search, Note Assist and generative image editing—feature prominently in Samsung’s Galaxy S24 marketing, which is squarely focused on framing it as a unique AI-powered phone. Except it won’t be anymore, because Samsung wants to make this technology available to hundreds of millions of existing Galaxy users.
So why the generosity? The answer might be in the small print on Samsung’s website, which states that “Galaxy AI features will be provided for free until at least the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices.”
There is a good chance that Samsung will decide to paywall some of these features in the future, which are expensive to develop and run. And now that Samsung has confirmed which devices will get the update, there’s a potential new customer base of 100 million people who might buy a subscription.
That is a huge potential revenue stream for the Korean manufacturer. How many people will want to pay for the current line-up of AI features is another question, none of which I consider game-changing (but still impressive) in my time with the S24 Ultra.
But I imagine Samsung has much more on the way. What would convince me to open my wallet is if Samsung deployed its AI to make its phones, or any Android phone, more usable. By that, I mean making the many features Samsung crams into its smartphones more accessible. Or even just making users aware that they exist.
The Galaxy Z Fold is the phone I use daily, it’s an outstanding piece of technology that I happily named the best phone of 2023. But I’m still discovering new features regularly, like how in-depth the remote controls are when it’s connected to my Samsung TV. A great feature, a fun discovery, but also something I never would’ve found had I not stumbled upon it.
AI can solve this. There is a world where a user can ask a chatbot to cast one app from your phone to your TV (instead of the entire phone screen), stipulate that notifications are not shown on the big screen, and to also set a timer for how long the casting session lasts for. All of this could be achieved with one prompt. This is a lot easier than hunting around setting menus, and online reading guides, just to use one seemingly simple feature.
Google is teasing such abilities with its Gemini for Android app, which can scan and summarize content from your Google Drive or Gmail accounts. It’s impressive to see in action and the prospect of getting a genuine assistant that makes your smartphone more useful is tantalizing. It might be less sexy than generative image creation, but making your phone efficient is vastly more exciting to me. Let’s hope Samsung agrees.
Update February 26th: Samsung is giving Android and iOS users a chance to try it new Galaxy AI abilities through the Try Galaxy promotional app. Previously, the app was only available to iOS users and served as as part of a long-running marketing campaign to tempt iPhone owners over to Samsung smartphones. A practice the company has been aggressively engaged in for years. Now the app is available to all Android users, too.
It works by simulating the home screen of a Samsung Galaxy phone, which includes a demo of the new Galaxy AI features. It’s not a launcher app that adds a new skin, rather it’s a very clever interactive guide with a suite of detailed features. For example, one of the AI features, Live Translate, doesn’t actually work. You can initiate your own translated phone call. Instead, users are given an in-depth demonstration of a call between an English speaking woman and a Spanish taxi driver organising a pickup.
Other skills, like Circle To Search and Note Assist are just videos explaining the feature. The overall experience is oddly detailed, though. The Gallery app has a full compliment of someone else’s pictures, there are text messages between your alternate Galaxy owning self and others, and a detailed Samsung Health profile too.
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