I think I’d really love Galaxy S24’s AI features if I actually liked Samsung’s apps

Ben Schoon | Jan 21 2024 - 9:00 am PT

It’s only been a couple of weeks, but AI is absolutely the big buzzword of 2024, and Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series is betting big on the tech. And, somewhat shockingly, the Galaxy AI suite is really quite good, but the problem I’m facing so far is that the Samsung apps they’re tied to are not ones I want to use.

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On the Galaxy S24, S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra, Samsung has a suite of a bunch of AI features. Some work on-device while others are powered by Google’s Gemini models in the cloud, but the whole suite is baked throughout Samsung’s experience. Chat Assist lives in Samsung Keyboard, Transcript Assist is in Samsung’s Voice Recorder apps, and so on.

Here are all of Samsung’s new Galaxy AI features [Gallery]

I’ve been testing the Galaxy S24 Ultra for the past few days, and I’m actually rather happy with Samsung’s work on these AI features. That said, I’d probably like them all a whole lot more if they weren’t baked into apps that I don’t want to use.

My main example here comes with Samsung’s Chat Assist features. These features can translate messages in any messaging app, help you better phrase your messages, or help out with spelling and grammar. To Samsung’s credit, it works really well! But do you know what doesn’t work very well? Samsung Keyboard! Autocorrect is rough as it constantly ignores when I undo a “correction,” and it’s lacking on simple features I’ve come to rely on after years on Gboard, like GIF insertion. I’m forcing myself to use Samsung Keyboard to try out these AI features but, I really don’t want to. And the voice-to-text is impressively bad. Google’s voice-to-text on Pixel phones pretty much puts everything else to shame, but I’ve had some of the worst, least understandable typos this week while forcing myself to use Samsung’s keyboard.

Another place I’m finding myself struggling to use Samsung’s apps is the Gallery app.

There’s a lot of really cool AI going on in Gallery, but since that app doesn’t hold all of the photos I take on my other devices like Google Photos does, I don’t really find myself wanting to use it. Samsung Gallery syncs with OneDrive, which is good, but given Samsung’s really tight partnership with Google, it’s honestly a little disappointing that I can’t do the same with Google Photos (though I’m sure Google is partially to blame here).

Similarly, I would love to start using Samsung Notes as its AI summaries seem useful, but because it’s not available on non-Galaxy devices, that’s simply not going to happen.

Samsung’s apps aren’t necessarily bad, but they’re not for me. These AI features are really good, but they don’t make the apps they’re attached to any drastically better and, as a result, I think Samsung is going to be fighting a battle to change user habits for these features. That’ll be an especially tough sell when these features are paid in the future too.

What do you think? Do you use Samsung apps? Let’s discuss!

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.

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Top comment by Nick Letsom

Liked by 10 people

I'll give a bit of a spicy take on this: I have, for the longest time, been the biggest Android purist ever. Since the Galaxy Nexus, I've only run Nexus/Pixel devices with only a couple of dips into other manufacturers (which ran "like stock" skins). But over the last couple of years, I've felt that Google's in-house apps and services have really started to slip in quality. Plus, Pixel's radio, power, and thermal management bugs were a nightmare on my P7Pro, Assistant has gone completely senile.

So I picked up an S23 Ultra recently, and the first thing I did was go through and disable every redundant Samsung app on it. But lately, I've found Samsung's in-house offerings to actually eek out Google's in performance and stability. They've actually done a surprisingly good job approaching the "it just works" level of Apple's ecosystem.

I'm not about to drop Google Calendar for Samsung Calenda, and I certainly won't transition my Google Photos library to Samsung + OneDrive backup, but man is the Samsung Email app good, and I'm constantly surprised with how comprehensive Samsung Health is.

The beauty of Android as an ecosystem is you can decentralize it. I use Google for a lot of services, but now I (mostly) use Firefox as my browser, 1password for password management, and Samsung for a handful of other services. Picking and choosing based on which offers the best service & functinoality for you is the key.

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A new report out of Taiwan this week sees Google locking down a testing partner in Taiwan for the Tensor G5 process that will be used in upcoming Pixels. The new chip is said to be Google’s first fully custom design which would be produced by TSMC instead of Samsung.