You’ll likely know by now that Samsung's Galaxy S24 phones are as much concerned with AI as they are the latest mobile hardware – “the next big thing is you,” reads the tagline to the company's latest TV commercial. But the Korean giant is insistent that features like Generative Edit and Circle to Search are just the tip of the AI iceberg.
In an interview with TechRadar following the latest Galaxy Unpacked showcase, Samsung’s Head of Customer Experience, Patrick Chomet, teased the company's lofty ambitions when asked about his dream Galaxy AI feature of the future.
“There’s not one feature,” Chomet told us, “rather my dream for Galaxy AI [is to reach a point where] I don’t ever need to go to settings. The phone of the future has no accessibility menu. Think about it – we say that AI intelligently adapts to me and my needs. We are all human beings, whether disabled or otherwise, but [right now] the disabled have an accessibility menu and [everyone else] has a default menu. That’s not right. Plus, it’s technically incorrect [to distinguish between the two], because it’s a spectrum.”
“Over my lifetime,” Chomet continued, “my ability to type will degrade, my eyesight will change, my ability to listen to audio will vary. So, for me, the dream of the future is being able to deliver on the promise of AI – intelligence that [makes my phone] work for me. Intelligence is not some kind of gimmick feature that people don’t want. It will help people communicate. It will help people share. It will help people summarize. It will help people listen. It will work for me; as an individual [with individual needs]. The dream Samsung device is one that can adapt to that.”
That sounds to us like Samsung envisions a future in which its smartphones offer a much more streamlined, bespoke mobile experience. Galaxy AI could, ultimately, remove the need for manual customization, allowing us to reach a point where your smartphone automatically adapts itself to your accessibility needs without intervention. For example, if you’re struggling to read a news article or hear someone over the phone, future Galaxy devices might be capable of automatically increasing the size of on-screen text, or adjusting call volume to suit your ears, specifically.
It’s certainly a bold vision – and Chomet clarified his comments by saying “this is a long way off” – but Samsung clearly harbors ambitions to declutter the Android UI once and for all.
Indeed, the complexity (read: inaccessibility) of Android devices is a big reason why we think Android fans are switching to iPhones in record numbers, so it’s certainly in Samsung’s interest to deliver a more hands-off, user-friendly Android experience than we’ve become accustomed to seeing in recent years.
For our early thoughts on Galaxy AI and Samsung’s latest devices more generally, head over to our hands-on Samsung Galaxy S24 review, hands-on Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus review and hands-on Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review.
