Samsung’s new S25 smartphones have just made their grand entrance at the January 2025 Galaxy Unpacked Event, but that’s not all. 🚀📱 Alongside these cutting-edge devices, Samsung also unveiled a suite of AI-powered tools – and guess who got the first taste? That’s right, me! 😎✨
The showstopper was Now Brief, a feature teased ahead of the event that offers personalized daily briefs based on your schedule and habits. 🗓️📊
Pulling insights from your connected email, calendar, wallet, accessories like the Galaxy Ring 💍 or Galaxy Watch ⌚, and other Samsung devices such as your Samsung TV 📺, Now Brief promises to give you a quick rundown of your day ahead. This includes reminders to prepare for your trip ✈️, take it easy if you didn’t sleep well 😴, or use that expiring coupon 🛍️.
Throughout the day, Now Brief adapts to your preferences to help you achieve your goals. 🎯 For instance, if you’re falling short on your health targets 🏃♀️, it’ll remind you to get those steps in, complete with tips to boost your count!
Isn’t this the future of seamless living? 🤖💡
Samsung says Now Brief will learn to understand you via its 'Personal Data Engine'. 🧠 It’ll prioritize the tips that matter most to you and be smart enough to exclude irrelevant parts. Most intriguingly, Samsung is leaning heavily into its Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices 🌐 – with its presentation spotlighting the enhanced integrations you'll unlock if you pair your new Samsung phone with other devices like a Samsung TV and Samsung Smartwatch. (A tactic Apple 🍎 has used for years to persuade users to buy not just an iPhone, but an entire Apple ecosystem.)
Because of this reliance on understanding you, of the three features I’ve tried, Now Brief is the one I had the hardest time with – since the test unit knew nothing about my personal schedule or who I am, it could only tell me about the nearby weather 🌦️ (which wasn’t particularly useful). I'm hopeful that the full release will be more exciting and will be available on older devices like the Samsung Galaxy S24, Galaxy Z Flip 6, and Fold 6.
Now Brief has the potential to be the top new AI feature! 🌟 I constantly forget things in my busy schedule 🏢📅 until the last minute, so a regular update on what’s coming up and reminders to hit my daily health goals 🥗💪 could be super handy – but it will all depend on how well this is implemented. AI features promise a lot, but will Now Brief deliver? 🤔
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Cut through the noise 🎤
For those who love capturing memories on video – whether to share with friends, family, or your followers – the new Samsung phones introduce Audio Eraser. 🛠️🎧 This on-device audio editing tool helps you adjust different types of sounds in your video, similar to what we've seen in the Google Pixel 8.
During a pre-event demo, I recorded a clip of a Samsung representative speaking while I clapped loudly 👏 and made noise in the background. Listening back, their voice was barely audible amidst the commotion. That is, until I used the phone’s video editor to turn down my disruption and enhance their voice. 🎙️ The final result was impressive, with only slight distortion to their voice, but significantly clearer than the unedited audio.
We’ll need more testing, but Audio Eraser seems perfect for making your concert recordings 🎶 truly pop.
For those who prefer using AI to help create images 🖼️, Samsung’s Sketch to Image AI tool is getting an upgrade too, making it easier to combine real and AI elements.
During a demo, I combined a written prompt – I went with “an icy lake in a cartoonish style” ❄️🎨 – with a preexisting image of a random dog 🐶 to stand in as my puppy. Galaxy AI merged the two seamlessly, producing an image of a dog resembling the one in the photo, playing near a snowy lake, all in a cartoonish style.
AI image generation isn’t everyone’s cup of tea ☕, but if you enjoy experimenting with this feature and want more freedom to blend real and AI elements, this is a significant improvement over previous Samsung tools. 🚀
