If you thought you were missing something from Samsung’s Galaxy S-series phones‘ new artificial intelligence features, never fear. The Galaxy A lineup, stretching back to the Ax4 models, is gaining similar functionality. Retroactively, via a software update.
Owners of the Galaxy A56 5G, A55 5G, A54 5G, A36 5G, A35 5G, A34 5G, A26 5G, A25 5G, A25e 5G or A24 smartphones will soon see the side/camera button repurposed in much the same way the Galaxy S has done it — with AI foremost in mind. It won’t be right away — updates begin from May this year — but it will happen.
That’s just… Awesome, Samsung
The South Korean company has already packed its Galaxy A56, A36, and A26 with its Awesome Intelligence feature – a stripped-back version of Galaxy AI. This new update adds “smarter AI experiences, including launching Gemini, Google’s AI-powered assistant, by simply pressing and holding the side button,” to these and some older phones running OneUI 7.0.
This will, according to Samsung, let users “effortlessly check their schedule, find nearby restaurants or get recommendations for birthday gifts using voice commands. They can also carry out tasks across apps with just a single command – like finding a dinner spot on Google Maps and sending the address to a friend through Messages – spanning Samsung, Google and select third-party apps.” We’re not mistaken in thinking that most of this was already possible using Google Assistant, but Gemini is what Google wants to punt at the moment. They’re totally not the same thing.
Still, if you were wondering where your Google Assistant functionality went, it’s called Gemini now, and it’ll launch as an update in early May. As for how useful it is… well, Samsung’s own fine print happens to read (when discussing the responses you’ll get from Gemini), “Accuracy of results is not guaranteed.”
