At Galaxy Unpacked 2024, we saw the announcement of the Galaxy S24 lineup. The main headlines this time were all about the new Galaxy AI. It collaborates with Google and uses the Gemini AI model for several features that work smartly on your device.
Call Assist lets us translate our voice in real-time; you can now press the screen to slow down videos up to 120 FPS; there’s Live Translate for calls and texts, a built-in AI wallpaper generator, and many new smart keyboard features. The Summarize feature is particularly helpful, and it works even in some first-party apps like Notes. You also get Photo Editing features like autofill and subject rearrangement.
While these features were all advertised with the S24, older users wonder whether their phones will get them. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was also heavily advertised for AI, so it doesn’t make sense if the S23 lineup doesn’t get these features. Fortunately, Samsung confirmed to Android Authority via mail that many features will make it to some of their models.
The update is expected around H1 2024. They did not particularly inform which features will not make it. It’s clear why Samsung is now moving in this direction. Because of a decline in hardware sales, companies now have to make money from existing users. In this case, the only way to monetize existing users is with a subscription service, Galaxy AI. It’s free until 2025, after which you have to pay an unknown amount every month or every year.
The phones that will get it are the entire S23 lineup, including the S23 FE (Exynos & Snapdragon), the Z Fold and Z Flip 5, and the entire Tab S9 series. The S22 and Tab S8 lineups are notably missing from the list.
We can’t rule out that it’s a hardware fault. However, a lot of these features are happening via the cloud. It’s understandable if Samsung doesn’t port the features over to the S22 lineup with One UI 6.1 since there will be no reason to upgrade to the S24 lineup.
This leaves S22 users in the dark. Samsung might bring it to the S22 lineup eventually. However, they didn’t offer any confirmation, and there’s no guarantee that it will ever happen. We can still hope some of them make it over. In some regions, the Exynos 2200 in the S23 FE uses the same chip as the Galaxy S22. Since the FE is getting Galaxy AI, it also makes sense for others to get it.
