Samsung puts an annoying little watermark on its version of Google’s AI wallpapers

Ben Schoon | Jan 18 2024 - 10:15 am PT

AI is the big selling point of the new Samsung Galaxy S24 series, and one of the features is support for AI-generated wallpapers. But an annoying little watermark takes away from those wallpapers just a bit.

Google first brought AI-generated wallpapers to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro late last year, with users able to pick from a variety of topics and adjust several variables to create their own wallpapers that are completely unique. The feature works really well on Pixels, and Samsung has pretty much fully copied it on the Galaxy S24 series as a part of One UI 6.1.

In Samsung’s implementation of AI wallpapers, there are a handful of key changes.

Samsung’s AI wallpapers won’t save your various selections to a library like Google does, but you can also more easily switch between generated options. When setting the wallpaper, a quick swipe will show another option while you’re previewing the wallpaper on the homescreen or lockscreen. It’s a nice touch.

But, no matter what wallpaper you generate, Samsung will apply a little watermark to it. This watermark uses the symbol that Samsung is using throughout One UI to highlight AI features. The symbol is also quite similar to Google’s logo for Bard, the company’s AI chatbot.

The watermark is fairly small and appears in the bottom left corner of all AI-generated wallpapers. It’s visible both on the lockscreen and the homescreen and, from what we can tell, it can’t be turned off.

You can see the watermark in the cropped screenshot below, as well as the other two screenshots of the lockscreen and homescreen.

Why is the watermark applied at all? That’s my biggest question. Google applies no such watermark to these wallpapers on Pixel phones, and you still can’t download and share the wallpapers generated either. So, really, it seems like something that doesn’t need to be there at all.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 series is available for pre-order now, starting at $799. Pre-orders come with doubled storage, boosted trade-ins up to $750, and bonus credit up to $150.

You can get an additional $50 off your purchase on Samsung.com using our exclusive links above.