When we covered Samsung’s latest powerful launch, the Galaxy S24 family, we discovered the expanded deployment of artificial intelligence of South Korean society. Galaxy AI was the call to introduce new best-in-class hardware, with a rationale in software given the huge rise in AI over the past year.
Samsung doesn’t need ChatGPT to convince us that on paper, the functions brought together by their most advanced phones were the most judicious application of artificial intelligence in a smartphone as we know them (examples like the curious Rabbit R1 are left aside) . We went to check it out in the Black Forest in Germany and without going too far I can say that it lived up to expectations. That was the experience.
Language barrier is (almost) not a problem with Galaxy AI
Among the most notable functions are those related to interpretation and translation: Live Translate and Interpreter are two superlative tools. To be honest, in some cases, as we will see later, it is clear that they have a way to go, but they are already useful.
The first of those mentioned, we are used to communicating with natives of the German country, to confirm reservations without having to speak German (that would not be bad, although with these functions we can defend ourselves). When the interlocutor picks up the call, he or she is notified that the conversation is taking place with an intermediary responsible for translating.
This is where its main drawback lies and it has a difficult solution: we are not used to a robot starting to warn us about recorded conversations. At first, many will hang up immediately. Thinking about it carefully, I would say that a little lacking in habit: AI has just arrived and is closely linked to scams and scams.
However, in cases where they accepted and continued the call, the function serves its purpose. We take turns speaking, and we will see the transcription and translation of the messages on the screen (in addition to hearing it with the synthetic voice), which It just seems magical.. It is necessary to download the Spanish package and the target language for it to work, and the best of all is that the data does not leave our mobile. In other words, if we find ourselves without an Internet connection, it will continue to work, which is extremely useful.
The second function, that of interpreter, focuses on face-to-face. And this resolves the difficulties quite well: during a challenge that we carried out in the city of Fribourg, we managed to understand each other with several people to whom we asked different questions.
Once again, something curious happens here, and that is the obvious – also logical – lack of usual use of this type of functions. You have to wait for one of the interlocutors to speak at each stage, which means that it is not immediate. However, as I said, it can perfectly serve to understand each other with any person, provided that in the list of supported languages with the function this is the one we need.
“Circle to Search” is your travel encyclopedia
Among other Galaxy AI features, we were able to take great advantage of the “Search Circle” introduced on the S24 in alliance with Google. Each day of the trip I ended up surrounding mountains, churches, rivers, and any natural or man-made feature worthy of the name.
So that? You may be wondering. The answer is simple, Around what the camera sees, we obtain information of all kinds: Surround a church? It tells us what it is and where it is (useful when traveling). Don’t we remember the name of a monument? A circle drawn with your finger will be enough to identify it.
The possibilities are almost endless, in fact, during a hiking activity it was possible to identify the varieties of plants and trees in the area, simply by pointing with your cell phone. And the Activation It couldn’t be more convenient: in case you didn’t know, it’s as quick as holding down the Android gesture bar and in a second the screen will light up to announce the arrival of “Circle to Search”.
Ultimately, applied to any other trip, it will allow us to locate ourselves without having to use GPS and Google Maps, in addition to obtaining information of any kind. What surrounds us will always be under control, never said better. As we continued the journey, we identified different types of trees and at the end of the journey, Google and Samsung technology were able to tell me the name of the bridge that was in front of me.
It’s still somewhat surprising – even though we’re dedicated to it – what these advances in AI are enabling, and especially in the world of smartphones. It’s only just begun: This is the start of a suite of tools that will be increasingly better integrated.
Voice recorder has a lot of potential with S Pen features and text recognition
Finally, I do not forget two applications that have proven to be very practical and included in One UI 6.1, the latest version of Samsung’s layer: the voice recorder and image gallery. You might be thinking what I used to give them so much importance.
Let me explain: the voice recorder includes AI functions that allow transcribe audio to text (doing it quite precisely, it must be said), and it doesn’t stop there. It also extracts a summary with the key points of the transcription and with a magic button translates it into our native language.
The operation is very simple, although to be honest A lot depends on what the microphone picks up.. In noisy environments, it suffers from some difficulties, somewhat affecting the transcribed text, and therefore the translation. You really couldn’t ask for more, in fact this feature is designed to be used in more comfortable circumstances for mobile microphones.
This is key and I don’t want to miss mentioning the S Pen, the digital pen included in the Galaxy S24 Ultra, allowed me to comfortably manage text, move it to the Notes app and keep a complete record of the conversations I recorded. It’s not a tool for everyone, but those who work with text on their mobile will find it very useful.
From now on, I stop expanding to make room for the Samsung gallery. The magic of the app is that it has image recognition and is able to identify elements such as text (now leaving aside the aforementioned “Search Circle” which is functional from any corner). Therefore, if at that time I forgot to use the Google function to learn something about my environment, such as translating a sign, I can do it following.
And also, in the gallery, we have the magic editor. This isn’t new to Galaxy AI nor does it focus on productivity, but it’s worth mentioning. Having such powerful cameras comes with great responsibility, and having a photo ruined by a stranger’s invasion is not pleasant.
The object eraser, similar to Google’s, does what it promises: it removes people from the photos we have taken, and even fill the background with sufficient solvency. Sometimes you might notice a small artifact, nothing out of the ordinary.
In short, during a trip during which we needed a co-pilot to help us understand – and understand ourselves with – everything around us, Samsung’s artificial intelligence proved to be the most practical. It’s amazing to think back to not so long ago when we carried a paper map and a dictionary. It’s over, at least for me.
After this short but intense journey, we come to its end. Before we started, I had doubts about the possibilities of the AI that debuted in the Galaxy S24. Now that I’m back, I think came to stay and I get lost in the infinite aspects it will have in the not too distant future.
In Xataka Android | What is One UI, all the information and best tricks of the Samsung operating system on Android
