Picture this: you upgrade your phone, and it feels like a fresh start. You can finally make the most of advanced features and new tech, but some of them are paywalled behind a silly subscription — well, that’s what the future Samsung experience could look like.
Earlier this week, it was leaked that Samsung might experiment with charging for Galaxy AI, meaning that tools such as Bixby Action, Daily Briefing, and Gen Video will be shunned into a subscription plan. It got me thinking: if you spend good money on a device, would these additional services make the experience any better?
This is something that Apple is particularly notorious for, and once you’ve scored a new device, there’s a whole manner of add-ons out there. Of course there are its flagship streaming services, Apple Music and Apple TV+, but Apple One is a handy way to cut the cord on services by bundling them into one subscription plan.
The difference with Apple is that these add-ons are designed as almost entirely separate services even though they still exist within the Apple ecosystem. For example, Apple Music is an Apple brand, but it operates as its own entity like Spotify or any other major music streaming platform. It’s also available to non-Apple users.
As smartphones develop alongside the evolution of AI tools, more phone manufacturers are starting to embed them into the core mobile experience. Just look at Gemini and Pixel Phones.
It's not looking pretty
With that in mind, is it fair to charge for tools that are already built into the device when you take it out of the box? According to Samsung Galaxy users, it’s not.
While some existing features (Now Brief, Browsing Assist, and Samsung Keyboard tools) are expected to remain free for now, not everyone is thrilled about the possibility of having to pay extra for the complete Galaxy AI experience, as one user on Reddit bluntly puts it (see below).
Comment from r/Android
But despite the integration of AI services in Samsung’s smartphones, it turns out that not everyone knows they even exist, as another Redditor shares: ‘I have a S25 Ultra, and I'm pretty sure I've never used any of the Galaxy AI stuff. Just looked in my settings and didn't even realize there were so many different AI features available’.
The other issue is the value that’s being brought to the table. Because the market is becoming increasingly saturated, there are a plethora of AI services that can assist you with all manner of things, but for existing Galaxy users, the quality just isn’t there with Galaxy AI.
With Google’s own Gemini services taking the reins of the company’s smartphones and home tech devices, the competition is fierce. In response to the Redditor above, another user added, ‘Most of which can be done better directly with Google services anyway. If I want AI I'll just use actual AI services, though I appreciate there's a local option (which dumbs most of these features down). There are a few useful things, but the vast majority of it is a solution in search of a problem.'
Equally, ChatGPT gives Galaxy AI a run for its money, but even though its premium features are also paywalled, the value factor is unmatched, making it even more difficult for Samsung to compete with the big dogs.
‘The only thing of 'value' is the device automation, which requires device integration. Otherwise, people are better off using external frontier models,’ a Redditor concludes.