Samsung is completely changing directions this year, and among moves like adding Perplexity as an AI assistant instead of relying on Gemini, Samsung is releasing something called “Now Nudge” on the Galaxy S26 series. Now Nudge is essentially just Magic Cue on the Pixel, but it only works with the Samsung Keyboard.
Samsung Keyboard has had a rocky history. Even though it’s the default option for users on Galaxy devices, oftentimes it’s immediately replaced by Gboard, since Google’s option acts as a native option for Android devices and brings better features like swipe typing.
Samsung Keyboard might be a must on the Galaxy S26, though. The company is adding a new feature called “Now Nudge” that acts like the Pixel’s Magic Cue function. On the Pixel, it’s supposed to surface relevant information when you need it, based on contextual clues from apps and services. For instance, Magic Cue would bring up someone’s address if you received a text asking about that address. But that’s in a perfect world
In reality, Magic Cue hasn’t been as impactful as hoped.
Now Nudge, on the other hand, looks incredibly promising. From the little time we’ve had at Samsung Unpacked with the new series, the Galaxy S26’s Now Nudge function does a surprisingly consistent job of bringing up that relevant information as needed. It works in any messaging app to suggest calendar events, surface only relevant photos, and share contact information.
Now Nudge isn’t groundbreaking, per se, but it’s adding a little depth to Galaxy devices and removing friction points in One UI.
The annoying part is the constraint it imposes on users. Understandably, Samsung Keyboard is required to use Now Nudge, so getting the full Galaxy experience will require using the default keyboard even more so.
Samsung is trying to save Now Brief
On a related note, Now Brief appears yet again in Samsung’s Galaxy S series launch. This time, though, it seems to be in an attempt to save the feature. As we’ve reported, Now Brief has been the same sort of disappointment that Pixel’s Magic Cue was.
There is a good foundation there, and Samsung is finally starting to build on what has been laid. The Galaxy S26 on One UI 8.5 will allow the feature to scrape data from other apps, separated into relevant categories to use on both the lock screen and in the edge panel.
Get a personalized briefing with suggested content and actions that change throughout the day. To use Now brief, Personal data intelligence must be turned on in Settings. Datae for this feature never leaves you phone without your consent.
It isn’t clear how Samsung is scraping this data, but it tries to assure users that the data is locally stored and never sent to the cloud “without your consent.” The data is sorted into categories, including:
- Health and wellness
- Travel
- Events and tasks
- Digital Wellbeing
- Communication
The same sort of data organization can be seen in the Pixel’s notification categories, which cleans up alerts and thins out the noise.
Now Brief, on the other hand, combines important bits of information into one summary. With the change to how it operates, it might finally be a little more useful. Now Nudge will only add to that if it works as intended.
The Galaxy S26 series is available for pre-order starting today. The Ultra variant is the only one that didn’t get a price increase, which might make it the better choice this year.
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