If you have been tempted by a new Galaxy smartphone from Samsung recently, there’s a good chance you’ve heard all about Galaxy AI — the company’s big artificial intelligence push. Its features spread throughout the phone, from calls to photos, and even further into its Health app, which is part of its smartwatches and earbuds.
But what exactly is Galaxy AI, and what features does it contain?
What is Galaxy AI, and what devices have it?
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Galaxy AI is the name given to a range of different AI-driven features that are available on a wide variety of current Samsung mobile devices. Samsung calls Galaxy AI a way to increase your productivity, become even more creative, and get more things done on your phone in a smarter way than ever before. You’ll find Galaxy AI features on the following devices:
- Galaxy S21 series
- Galaxy S22 series
- Galaxy S23 series
- Galaxy S24 series
- Galaxy Z Fold 4
- Galaxy Z Fold 5
- Galaxy Z Fold 6
- Galaxy Z Flip 4
- Galaxy Z Flip 5
- Galaxy Z Flip 6
- Galaxy Tab S8 series
- Galaxy Tab S9 series
Along with those gadgets, you’ll also find Galaxy AI on the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds Pro 3. The Galaxy Watch 7, Galaxy Watch Ultra, and Galaxy Ring use Galaxy AI, too. Finally, Samsung’s Galaxy Book 4 Edge laptops have Galaxy AI inside.
The Galaxy AI features available differ by model and region, and some may only operate when you connect two Samsung devices together, such as a Galaxy Z Fold 6 and a Galaxy Watch 7 or Galaxy Ring. While the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S22 phones can run some Galaxy AI features, the list is very short.
To get the most from Galaxy AI, you need the latest Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 models. Samsung states that all its Galaxy AI features will be free to use until the end of 2025. This may mean a subscription will be introduced after this time, but we don’t know anything about Samsung’s plans for costs, packages, and features involved in such a scheme.
Call- and chat-based Galaxy AI features
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Browse the Settings page on any compatible Samsung phone and you’ll find a heading named Galaxy AI, which gives an overview of the core features on most of the smartphones named above. Here’s what you get, but be aware some may not be available for your phone:
Call Assist: This feature will translate calls for you in real time. Multiple languages are available, including Spanish, Chinese (both mainland and Hong Kong), German, Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Thai, and English in the U.K., Indian, and Australian forms. The feature works in the main phone app and other apps where calls are possible, including WhatsApp, Google Meet, Instagram, and Line.
Chat Assist: In addition to translating messages, Chat Assist will also write messages for you, based on a short summary, in different styles along with checking your grammar and spelling. The available languages match those used by Call Assist, and you can select which features within Chat Assist are activated, so if you don’t want its style and grammar tips, they can be turned off. Similarly, you can switch the grammar and spelling tips to be processed only on the device.
Flip 6 interpreter mode Joe Maring / Digital Trends
Interpreter: Another translation-based AI feature, this time it works during spoken, in-person conversations. The live translation appears either on the screen as text or with audio through a pair of Galaxy Buds. The feature can be used either as a tap-to-talk two-way conversation or in a live setting where the phone’s microphone stays on, allowing it to be used in a variety of settings.
This feature changes depending on the Galaxy phone you are using. If you are using a Galaxy Z Fold 6 or Z Flip 6, multiple screens can be set up to show translated text in real time without sharing a screen with the other person. The same languages used by the other Assist features are supported.
Notes and productivity Galaxy AI features
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Note Assist: This feature is off by default, so go to the Settings page to activate it. It brings most of the same features from Call and Chat Assist into the Samsung Notes app — such as spelling and grammar checks and translation — along with auto-formatting, summaries, and transcripts for voice recordings. It also includes Sketch to Image, which turns your basic drawings into something more realistic, which is part of the Drawing Assist Galaxy AI feature.
Transcript Assist: Like Note Assist, this is off by default, but when you activate it, the AI will provide text transcriptions, summaries, and translations of voice recordings made with Samsung’s Recorder app. It supports the same languages as the other translation features and requires the original audio to be processed in the cloud, but Samsung does not store these.
Browsing Assist: You’ve probably guessed already, but Browsing Assist will summarize and translate web pages you visit using Samsung’s Browser app. The same situation applies here as with Transcript Assist, where data is processed in the cloud but not stored, and the feature is turned off by default.
Get creative with Galaxy AI
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
Photo Ambient Wallpaper: In addition to the Generative AI wallpaper mode seen on various Android phones, where the AI creates a wallpaper based on multiple keywords, Photo Ambient Wallpaper takes one of your own photos and adds a different weather effect to it. For it to work, location data from the weather app is required.
Drawing Assist: We’ve already mentioned one feature of Drawing Assist, Sketch to Image, which changes your basic sketches into something more impressive. This feature is used in Samsung Notes. Drawing Assist then does the same thing in the Photo Editor, changing your sketches scribbled over the top of your photos into something more photorealistic. At the moment, Sketch to Image is only available on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6.
Photo Assist: This feature works inside Samsung’s photo editing suite in the Gallery app. It includes features already available, such as moving, resizing, and shifting people and objects to change the look of your photo. There is another fun tool called Portrait Studio, which takes photos of people and reimagines them in a new style, such as a 3D cartoon, a sketch, a watercolor, or a comic drawing. It is currently only available on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.
Other Galaxy AI features
Circle to Search Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Circle to Search: Samsung pushed Circle to Search hard with the Galaxy S24 series, and it’s available on most Galaxy AI-compatible devices today. However, while it’s on Samsung phones, it’s technically a Google image search feature, so it’s also an option on Pixel phones. Using it is simple. Swipe up on the screen to activate it, circle the part of the image you want it to search for, and that’s it.
Instant Slo-mo: This cool video feature is available on some Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S23 series, Z Fold, and Z Flip phones. It uses AI to generate additional frames in a video you’ve shot, allowing you to slow it down to make your slow-mo video, even when you haven’t deliberately shot a slow-motion video. It’s available in the Gallery app on compatible phones.
Health Assist: If you use Samsung’s Health app and own a Galaxy Watch or Galaxy Ring, then Galaxy AI takes your data and provides more personalized insights and guidance. This includes the new Energy Score, which is based on sleep and activity data, and what Samsung calls “motivational messages and training tips” it will send to you each day.
Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Although the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro don’t have a specific Galaxy AI feature of their own, Samsung has used Galaxy AI to introduce new and improved features. For example, it uses AI algorithms for the Adaptive EQ, the active noise cancellation, and the ambient sound mode, including to help it recognize the sound of a siren. The Buds 3 Pro also work with the various translation features with either a listening or conversation mode option available, provided they are connected to a compatible Galaxy phone.
Samsung will inevitably add more Galaxy AI features over time, so this list will continue to grow. It also uses the branding in different ways, so get used to seeing it pop up on everything from its laptops to its earbuds today and likely more of its smart-connected products in the future.
