Samsung is making good on its promise to bring One UI 6.1 to a host of its handsets. And it’s coming sooner than you might think.
Samsung will deliver One UI 6.1 to a range of its older smartphones starting later this month, the company confirmed in a blog post on its Korean website. The Korean tech giant also confirmed that the devices will also get the same set of Galaxy AI features Samsung delivered in this year’s Galaxy S24 lineup.
In its blog post, Samsung didn’t say exactly when the handsets will get the update, but did confirm that it’ll be available over the air before the end of the month, suggesting older Samsung hardware owners should get it within the next couple of weeks.
Here’s a rundown of the devices that will be receiving the upgrade:
Samsung had previously confirmed that it would be bringing One UI 6.1 to those devices. However, the company hadn’t confirmed that they’ll also get all of the AI features available on the Galaxy S24. The decision to deliver those AI features suggests Samsung is indeed very serious about AI and ensuring the greatest number of its devices come with the ability to use its AI features.
Perhaps most importantly, Samsung isn’t limiting the number of AI features its devices will get, so all of the AI features available in the Galaxy S24 will be coming to its older hardware.
- Samsung Galaxy S23
- Samsung Galaxy S23+
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
- Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series
What AI features are coming to older Samsung hardware?
We've already broken down the main differences with Samsung's latest flagship devices over last year's set in our Galaxy S24 Ultra vs S23 Ultra face-off. But now that the older models are expected to gain the same Galaxy AI features, the difference between them have been dramatically lessened.
Here’s a brief rundown of all the AI features you can expect from One UI 6.1:
Live Translate is an impressive Galaxy AI feature that allows you to have a conversation with someone speaking a different language. When activated, Live Translate will listen in on the conversation and translate what the other person is saying into any other language, allowing you to communicate without an interpreter.
Chat Assist is a tool for chatting with friends. Instead of simply sending a message, you can input your desired chat into Chat Assist and it will optimize your tone to properly convey what you’re trying to say.
Circle to Search initially launched on the Galaxy S24, then subsequently rolled out to the Pixel 8, but Galaxy S23 owners will be able to tap on this intuitive, new way of performing Google searches within other apps. When initiated, you can simply circle what you want to search for and it'll populate all relevant items for you — all without having you leave the app you're using.
Samsung’s Notes app also gets an AI upgrade with a variety of features that optimize your note-taking. One of the more useful is Summarize, which will give you a summary of a note without you needing to read through it.
Samsung’s software also improves the voice recording app by auto-transcribing whatever you record. Think of it as a handy transcribing tool for meetings or talks.
Generative AI is also available in Samsung’s Photos apps, where you can easily edit your photos to optimize their look and feel. Interestingly, the feature will also suggest edits without your input.
And finally, even if you didn’t record videos in slow motion from your Samsung device, Galaxy AI will let you convert a video to slo-mo after the fact. It’s a neat feature that works quite well.
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