The big drawcard for Samsung’s 2024 smartphones was the debut of Galaxy AI on the company’s flagship handsets. The addition allows for a few unique tasks, like enhanced slow motion, on-the-fly translation, and on-device transcription. And now, many of those features are heading to older phones in the lineup.
That’s according to the chaps over at 9to5Google, who spotted a Samsung community manager posting on the company’s forums. The upshot is that, starting in May, older smartphones will start getting the OneUI 6.1 update. Part of that update will include Galaxy AI features (that you don’t have to own a Galaxy S24 Ultra to take advantage of).
Sneaky Samsung
The move isn’t exactly unexpected. The Galaxy S22 lineup was widely expected to gain some new AI smarts. The S23 is an obvious choice for a software upgrade. But the post on the company’s (Korean) forums also suggests that the Galaxy S21 is in line for Galaxy AI features.
But not all of them. Samsung has to maintain a reason for folks to pick up its currently on-sale smartphones, after all. The post notes that eligible 2022 devices, specifically, will get “Galaxy S23 FE level AI” features — basically, everything except ‘Instant Slow-Mo’. Eligible devices are the Galaxy S22, Plus, and Ultra, the Fold 4 and Flip 4, as well as the Galaxy S8 tablet lineup. Anything pre-2023 with an FE in the name is excluded.
The Galaxy S21 range (minus the FE) and Samsung’s Flip 3 and Fold 3 are in for a much more stripped-back experienced. ‘Circle to search’ and what might be ‘Generative Edit’ (the post calls it ‘Magic Rewrite’) are expected to be added to those handsets when the software update drops from May onwards.
How long it will take for those updates to reflect here in South Africa is, as ever, a guess at best. Still, if you have a fairly recent Samsung in your pocket, it may be about to get smarter than ever.