Samsung may have been the first to launch an “AI phone” this year, the Galaxy S24 series, which came with Galaxy AI preloaded, but Samsung did not offer a vision similar to Apple’s Apple Intelligence at the time. The Galaxy S24 offered plenty of AI features elsewhere at launch, like summary, translation, and image generation, but it lacked the glue to make it magical.

Next, Apple introduced the Apple Intelligence feature for the iPhone, which showed a more intelligent Siri at the heart of many AI interactions with the device. But Siri wouldn’t just replace ChatGPT, which it can’t even do right now. It will be a smarter assistant that can leverage your data to provide contextual information when answering complex questions. Once it gains these AI capabilities, Siri will also be able to control certain iPhone apps.

Samsung didn’t have this type of AI feature ready for the Galaxy S24 in January or the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 in July. However, after the Unpacked launch event in Paris, Samsung confirmed that it was working on features similar to those shown by Apple a month earlier.

Samsung is developing a personal Knowledge Graph to allow AI to understand how you use the device. A smarter Bixby with genAI capabilities would also be available on Galaxy AI phones.

Fast forward to early November and Samsung soft-launched the Bixby AI assistant. Although not available to most Galaxy AI users, the new Bixby will likely be available on supported devices once One UI 7 (Android 15) is ready. THE Galaxy S25 the phones will likely be the first Samsung devices to get it.

After revealing the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6Samsung made a “one more thing” announcement at the end of July’s Unpacked event to tease Galaxy AI features that seemed to match what Apple wants to do with Apple Intelligence.

Samsung talked about privacy in its hybrid approach to Galaxy AI (on-device and in the cloud) and explained how the Knowledge Graph would work. Here is the example used by Samsung:

In the near future, multimodal and contextual AI will function as an interconnected ecosystem, improving your daily life by performing complex and personalized tasks.

Our on-device Al algorithms will develop a personal Knowledge Graph for each user, learning from your usage over time, to provide progressively tailored services.

Each personal Knowledge Graph will integrate multiple data points, understanding their context to provide a more personalized experience. For example, if your energy score is low, Galaxy Al will analyze your schedule and suggest you take a break from your 7 a.m. spin class.

This level of integration will be achieved through secure on-device information analysis.

But it wasn’t until after the show that Samsung’s TM Roh confirmed in an interview that Bixby would get genAI powers. He only had this to say:

We will advance Bixby with the application of Gen AI technology

This was Samsung’s half-hearted response to Apple’s Siri demos a month prior. Samsung did not provide any details. It was unclear what AI technology it would use for Bixby or whether Gemini would be part of it. Then again, it’s not like smart Siri is out. It won’t come to the iPhone until next year, when iOS 18.4 is released.

Fast forward to mid-November and Samsung has unveiled the Samsung W25 and W25 Flip in China. These are known as the Galaxy Z Fold SE (in Korea) and Galaxy Z Flip 6 (outside China). They functionality the smarter Bixby, with a new design and new features.

It’s certainly surprising that Samsung is bringing the AI ​​upgrade to a market where Apple Intelligence won’t be available for quite a while. Google’s Gemini AI is also not available in China.

You can’t get this Bixby AI on other devices, but it’s logical to assume that Samsung will bring it to Galaxy AI internationally, starting with the Galaxy S25 series next year.

Images that SamMobile obtained, seen above and below, show some of Bixby’s new features.

The AI ​​will be able to understand natural language and context and handle multiple sentences containing multiple prompts.

Something like: “It’s cloudy outside. What should I wear to work today? » would trigger a Bixby response that offers the weather forecast for your area and clothing recommendations. Bixby will be able to understand questions like “How long will it take me to get there?” » It will determine that you are about to go to work and offer you directions and an ETA.

Bixby AI can also access your phone’s screen to retrieve information it might need to answer your question. You can ask it to help you “navigate here” and the AI ​​will search for location information on the screen. The screen may display a conversation with a friend mentioning a meeting place.

Like the next Siri, Bixby will be able to access information from data stored on your device and in various accounts. For example, asking the AI ​​about a family event will result in a search in the Calendar app.

The images also show that Bixby is getting a new design, with the UI taking up the entire page. The assistant will support voice and text prompts. It will also manage videos in conversations, for example 9to5Google.

Bixby will also translate web pages on demand and can generate documents for you within Microsoft’s suite of applications.

Finally, Bixby will provide advice on how to perform certain tasks on the Galaxy phone, similar to how Siri will explain how to use certain features on the iPhone.

This all feels like a significant upgrade, the kind that would certainly rival Siri and Gemini. But, again, this Bixby AI experience is currently only available on the new Samsung W25 and W25 Flip foldables launched in China.

The Galaxy S25 series will launch in early January, at which point Samsung will likely demo these Galaxy AI features for Bixby. In the meantime, you’ll find Samsung’s Bixby AI pages on this linkon the Samsung China website.