Samsung has announced that it’s rolling out One UI 6.1 to the Galaxy S22 series, Galaxy Z Flip4, Galaxy Z Fold4, and Tab S8 series devices in the United States. The company said that this update will bring Galaxy AI to older devices, which it first introduced with the Galaxy S24 series.
For those unfamiliar, Galaxy AI brings with it lots of cool features, including Circle to Search with Google, Chat Assist, Interpreter, Live Translate, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Browning Assist, Generative Edit, Edit Suggestion, and AI-Generated Wallpaper.
With the Live Translate feature, you can get instant voice and text translations over phone calls, while Chat Assist allows you to message users in other languages while also being able to adjust the message tone.
The Korean company said that these two features could help you bridge the communication divide with other peoples so that traveling abroad no longer has to be a daunting prospect. The experience is supposed to be even more convenient when using a foldable device.
Another major feature that the update brings is Circle to Search with Google. This allows you to circle an object on your phone screen to perform a Google Search on it. This feature will be available to even older devices, such as the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Z Flip3, and Galaxy Z Fold3.
It’s nice to see that Samsung is giving some AI love to its older devices. Many analysts are predicting that AI chips will be included in upcoming phones so they can run large language models locally, but allowing older devices to run AI isn’t a given. In this regard, it looks like Samsung has been a bit forward-looking.
One interesting thing to note is that Samsung says, “Galaxy AI features by Samsung will be provided for free until the end of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy devices.” It’s unclear if they will become paid features then, remain free, or be dropped.
Source: Samsung