Galaxy S24 Owners, Using Any Galaxy AI Features?

I don’t think I’m out of line in suggesting that the Galaxy S24 series is a minor upgrade over last year’s Galaxy S23. That’s not to say that there aren’t improvements, it’s just that there aren’t any big leaps in design or internal hardware, outside of a welcomed flatness to the S24 Ultra and the typical bumps in processing power.

The big sell, likely because the hardware wasn’t that different, has been Galaxy AI. AI in general is all anyone in tech wants to talk about these days, but it was the headline feature and talking point for the Galaxy S24 series at launch. Galaxy AI is the thing Samsung wants you to know about its new phones.

Should you browse through Samsung’s site (here) at the moment, you’ll see Galaxy AI mentioned as the first highlight of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. The little star logo for Galaxy AI is used excessively throughout S24 pages and there are multiple sections on landing pages that run through its features, sometimes for the second or third time in a couple of scrolls.

For those needing a recap on Galaxy AI, the list of items to be aware of are as follows:

• Circle to Search: This is a Google-powered feature that allows you to search for anything on your screen at any time.
• Generative Wallpaper: This is barely AI, but the S24 series has the same generative AI wallpaper from the Pixel 8 series. You can create custom wallpapers in various styles on a whim.
• Live Translate in calls: Samsung built-in a live translation service into the phone app that will translate calls in real-time from another language.
• Chat Assist: When in chat conversations, Samsung’s keyboard can suggest different tones for you to respond in. The keyboard can also translate messages and spellcheck and/or provide grammar suggestions.
• Interpreter: This provides live translations for spoken conversations, like Google Translate has done for a number of years.
• Samsung Notes: The Notes app from Samsung can auto format, summarize, correct, translate, and generate covers for your notes.
• Voice Recorder: The built-in Voice Recorder app can create transcripts and summaries of recordings.
• Photo Editor: Built-in editing tools powered by AI include moving or removing objects, resizing people, and generating new backgrounds to fill space.
• Samsung Internet: You can get summaries of webpages and full translations of them

My question to you today is, are you using Galaxy AI? You’ve had the Galaxy S24 in hand for a couple of weeks now and have once again read through that list above – are you using any of it?

As I’ve been testing the regular Galaxy S24 and finding it hard to put words on paper about it because it’s so similar to last year’s Galaxy S23, I stopped myself yesterday to ask what I should be sharing with you. And that’s when the Galaxy AI stuff popped back in my mind as the marquee of the S24 series. This is apparently what I’m supposed to be telling you about.

Unfortunately, this stuff isn’t for me. I don’t need real-time translations in daily life. I certainly don’t need a keyboard to suggest a tone in conversations; I can type in my own preferred tone. Taking notes, especially notes that are long enough to need summarize or correcting hasn’t happened to me since I was in school 20 years ago. I still don’t use Samsung Internet. I’m also not big on editing photos in the era of AI to create memories or scenes that aren’t real.

Hey, if there’s one thing, I can say that I don’t mind messing with a wallpaper-maker from time to time. Circle to Search could also be useful in the right situation and I have used it a couple of times. Sadly, it feels a lot like a Google Shopping tool rather than an informational one.

I’m officially not the target of AI and it feels weird. I’d love to share the importance of AI with you and sell you on how beneficial this stuff can be, but I just can’t. The AI feature for me isn’t here and I tend to share things based on experiences.

So, back to that original question – are you using Galaxy AI? If so, I’d love to hear about the ways you are finding it useful. I’m sure others would too.