Samsung Galaxy AI features promise an upgraded smartphone experience

Samsung just launched its new Galaxy S24 Ultra series phones, and if you pay close attention to the design, you will notice that not a lot has changed from the S23 series. This is because most of the changes are on the inside.

The highlight of all the under-the-hood features, is Samsung’s new Galaxy AI feature-set, which the brand claims will revolutionise how we use smartphones. Here’s a quick look at what Galaxy AI is, what it can do, and what phones will get it.

What is Samsung Galaxy AI?

Samsung Galaxy AI is a collective name given to a set of artificial intelligence-powered features that have been announced with the Samsung Galaxy S24 series phones. These features are available in the base Galaxy S24, the Galaxy S24+, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra.

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Galaxy AI is a collaborative effort between Samsung and Qualcomm. The latter provides the groundwork for the new features thanks to the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which comes with a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that allows AI processing right on the device.

Quick pointer – in any other phones without a built-in NPU, AI tasks (like using the ChatGPT app) is slower because the processing doesn’t take place on your phone. Your phone actually sends information out to remote servers and receives processed replies/results in return, causing the latency.

With the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, and most upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 smartphones, this process will be cut-short with on-device AI, allowing brands to cook up new use-cases, like real-time translations and generative image editing.

Samsung Galaxy AI: All new features explained

Here is each new feature that’s a part of the Galaxy AI suite, and what it can do.

Live Translate: A lifesaver for frequent travellers, Galaxy AI’s Live Translate feature will let you speak on a call with another user who speaks in a different language, with very fast real-time translations. You will no longer need to wait for the other party to first speak in their language, and then for the phone to translate it to yours.

Interpreter: A similar feature to Live Translate, Interpreter will allow live conversations to be instantly translated on a split-screen view so people standing on either end of a screen can quickly see real-time translations of what the other person is saying.

Chat Assist: When using the Samsung Keyboard, Galaxy S24 series users will be able to type messages and instantly change the tonality of it to something lighter or more professional. They will also be able to create social media captions and translate messages in real-time in 13 languages.

Android Auto: On phones with Galaxy AI connected to Android Auto in a car, incoming messages will automatically be summarised in real-time, handy for long texts. The feature will also suggest relevant replies and actions, so you can pay more attention to the road.

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Note Assist: When using Samsung Notes, Note Assist will help users create AI-generated summaries of long, unorganised notes. Notes, with absolutely no structure, can also be streamlined with pre-made formats. There is also support for cover creation to make notes easier to spot.

Circle to Search: While we aren’t sure if this feature will remain exclusive to Samsung Galaxy S24 users only, Circle to Search is a collaboration with Google Search. It allows users to long-press on the home button and use their fingers or the S-Pen to quickly circle any object on-screen.

A small tab will open up from the bottom with quick search results in the form of texts or images with information on what is circled. The best part is that this will work inside any app and at any moment. So, users will be able to do things like circle objects in the middle of a YouTube video and get results on the bottom, without leaving the app.

Instant Slo-Mo: The Samsung Galaxy S24 series allows users to instantly make any video a slow-motion video by simply long-pressing on the screen. With AI-powered frame interpolation (artificial frames inserted between real frames), a 120fps video can become a 240fps slow-motion video in less than a second.

Edit Suggestion: Galaxy AI can also suggest suitable tweaks for every picture you take. These can range from simple tweaks to the contrast or highlights, to advanced selective edits to particular parts of the image to alter/remove elements like reflections and glare.

Samsung Galaxy AI: Which phones will get the new features?

While some of the Galaxy AI features require the phone to sport an NPU via a chipset like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, other features are still remotely processed. What this means is that some Galaxy AI features will come to older phones, like the S23 series.

While advanced features like Live Translate may not be available on these devices, other features like Note Assist and Chat Assist may be brought to older phones with an update. Samsung has, however, not officially made it clear which features will remain exclusive to the S24-series.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S23 series: Should you still buy Samsung’s old flagships in 2024?

The Galaxy AI features that older phones can support, will come to the Samsung Galaxy S23 series, including the Galaxy S23 FE, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, as well as the Galaxy Tab S9 series.

That’s all you need to know about Galaxy AI for now. For those interested, remember that the Galaxy S24-series phones will be available from January 31.