The Galaxy S26 lineup is a pretty familiar upgrade, which means Samsung is once again calling on its AI platform to make these devices stand out from the pack. This year’s big difference is an actual vision for what Galaxy AI should be aiming to accomplish — though whether that holds up in practice remains to be seen.
I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with Galaxy AI since its initial launch a few years ago, and while I wouldn’t say the biggest issue was a lack of strong direction, it certainly didn’t help that the platform felt entirely like a sales pitch. But now, Samsung is back with a new promise to “simplify your day” through Galaxy AI, and at the very least, the vision being promised here feels like a step in the right direction. Those tools really boil down to a mix of new additions and upgraded features, starting with Now Nudge, Now Brief, and — believe it or not — Bixby.
Now Nudge is the big new feature here, essentially recreating what Google aimed for with Magic Cue on the Pixel 10. Despite having used a Pixel 10 since launch, I haven’t been particularly impressed with the feature, largely because it’s easy to forget it exists. I’m not alone in that, according to our own polling from last year, and unfortunately, I’m not sure Now Nudge is going to be any better.
According to Samsung’s announcement today, Now Nudge is designed to give “timely and relevant suggestions” to “help users avoid distractions.” The example used here are photo recommendations, automatically prompted when someone you’re chatting with wants to see what happened on your last vacation. But that’s the only example given here, and if I’ve learned anything over the last few years of AI hype, typically the examples given are just about all these features are capable of. Magic Cue is the perfect example: the demos shown on stage with Jimmy Fallon weren’t just scratching the surface — they were the entire feature set, designed to softly imply that more capability exists once the phone’s in your hand.
I haven’t used Now Nudge yet, and Ben Schoon did notice a couple of additional suggestions for calendar appointments during his hands-on. But considering how limited this year’s upgrade is, it certainly says a lot that Now Nudge gets just one example in today’s press release. And once you account for Now Nudge requiring Samsung Keyboard — just as Magic Cue requires Gboard — you start to wonder how much impact it might leave post-launch.
But that’s not the only step towards a simpler life Samsung is hoping you’ll take with its latest Galaxy AI upgrade. The brand says Now Brief is now “more proactive and personalized,” which could help improve an otherwise-lackluster tool first launched on the Galaxy S25. Once again, we’re short on details in terms of actual changes, though it apparently is capable of scraping notifications. That feels like something that should’ve been available at launch last year, but a late improvement is still an improvement.
Bixby is back and, presumably, better than ever, though it still exists primarily as an assistant built for on-device actions like changing settings through conversational commands rather than a typical preferences menu, alongside integration for web-based information that seems to pull from Perplexity. Although Bixby will always exist as something of a joke amongst tech enthusiasts, it’s somewhat impressive to have lasted long enough to get a genAI-styled makeover, and if any settings menu needs a conversation mode, it’s Samsung’s.
While I quite like Samsung’s intentions with Galaxy AI this go-around, it feels like the features it’s using to promote its goals feel like underbaked takes on its rivals’ similarly-underbaked skillsets. If the Galaxy S26 exists largely on software improvements, launching a One UI-flavored version of Magic Cue or promising vague improvements to Now Brief just doesn’t feel like enough to actually simplify the lives of most people. It’s a noble goal, but at the end of the day, this feels like another round of Galaxy AI tweaks meant to paper over a lack of overall innovation.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 series is now available to pre-order at Samsung.com, with up to $900 in trade-in value or $150 in store credit for additional devices if you forego a trade-in altogether.
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