In the past, there’s been a lot of conversation about the actual real-world applications for AI, with some dismissing it as a gimmick. I was recently given the opportunity to put this to the test with my new Galaxy S25 Ultra and I’m delighted (and relieved, as you’ll see) to inform you that, rather than being a collection of impressive but ultimately frivolous features, the Galaxy AI¹ genuinely provides functionality that can be a huge help, without requiring the user to have any prior expertise or experience.
My friend Kev called me recently to let me know he was getting married which is, obviously, wonderful. However, it was going to be quite the quick turnaround and first on the agenda was a small, but imminent, stag do with a couple of his closest friends and me. Could the Galaxy S25 Ultra help me – someone not exactly prone to good planning – avoid being his Worst Man?
Seamless Actions Across Apps: Your very own AI P.A.
First things first, we needed to get together for an obligatory pre-stag planning pint, and it was suggested a board game cafe might be the perfect venue. Kev lives in Bath, a city I’m unfamiliar with but thankfully, with Seamless Actions Across Apps² on Galaxy S25 Ultra, planning a meet up was as simple as asking the phone the following:
“Find me a board game cafe in Bath that’s open today and text Kev to tell him to meet me there at 6pm”. And with that, I found myself in the brilliant Thirsty Meeples, discussing our plans for Barcelona (his future wife’s hometown) over a game of Sagrada.
Call Transcription: From P.A. to Secretary
We agreed to have a follow up chat on the phone the next evening but, perhaps due to the cafe’s exceptional selection of gins (or, more honestly, my inability to do adulting) I failed to remember this. Of course, I should have just told the Galaxy S25 to diarise it for me and it would have been more than happy to, but hey, the tech can only be as good as the user!
Thankfully, it turns out that – even when I make mistakes – the Samsung S25 has got my back. I was in the middle of an online gaming session when he called and, while I did my best to give him my full attention, I didn’t, because… games. This was no problem though, as with Transcript Assist³, you can record and instantly convert your call into text. More than that, it can even summarise the transcript call for you, giving you a short bulleted list of the key info and actions you agreed to, but weren’t listening to.
Everyone Needs Their Own Researcher
I might not be the best Best Man ever, but the Galaxy S25 certainly improved my chances of appearing to be. One of the actions was to pop him over a list of potential activities to do in Barcelona, but time is tight and those Battle Pass items aren’t going to unlock themselves. So I hopped on YouTube and went to a channel I’ve found really well curated in the past, Hungry Passport. The Galaxy S25 then watched it for me and summarised it in notes⁴, which I could then tweak before sending over to Kev. Being able to distill the key points from a YouTube video is a huge timesaver and certainly something I’ll be using a lot day-to-day in the future.
Interpreter Mode: Making The Most With Local Knowledge
When we were out in Barcelona, Kev wanted to head off the beaten path for a bit, and go to the sort of hidden local gem of a restaurant you might not find from a quick internet search. But how should we even go about working out who to ask where we might find these hidden gems Kev had lodged in his mind? Well. A lot of people are familiar with features on typical translation apps, but the Interpreter⁵ mode cranks things up a notch with quality of life enhancements. It enables real-time split-screen translation, rotating the display so each speaker can view text in their own language. This avoids back-and-forth phone handling and supports natural face-to-face conversation. So me and our Spanish friend could easily communicate speedily, as half of my screen was orientated towards each of us – no need to faff about with passing the phone to and fro, etc. This handy feature meant we could befriend the local barman – a man who looked like the sort who’d have loads of deep local knowledge – and sure enough he pointed us in the right direction: Big night out, here we come! Little things, but genuine quality of life innovations that make the process more fluid and natural.
Interpreter 2: Never Travel Without One
So far, this might have all given you the impression I’d somewhat phoned in (excuse the pun) the stag organising duties but in my defence it was VERY last minute. And, anyway, I had an ace up my sleeve. One of Kev’s favourite game developers has a studio in Barcelona and, through a friend of a friend, I’d managed to bag us a guided tour. What I had not appreciated, however, was the language barrier, as the programmer who my friend had kindly secured for this unique experience spoke minimal English. However, Galaxy AI Interpreter Listening Mode delivers real-time voice translation via Galaxy Buds (or Earbuds), so Kev was able to pop my earbuds in and have live translation beamed directly into his brain.
With this feature the programmer was able to speak with a level of depth and detail that would have been impossible had we been attempting to communicate in each other’s languages at a basic level, and so hugely increased how much Kev was able to glean from the opportunity. Of course, with the same tools we’d used with the local waiter, he was able to speedily talk to-and-fro at the end with the many burning questions he had.
Genuine Quality of Life Improvements You Can Benefit From – Without Effort
It’s funny reading this back as, stripped of context or taken in isolation, any of these things might seem trivial, but they’re really not. Galaxy AI legitimately provides intuitive assistance in many areas that materially improved Kev’s experience before and during the trip, and created fond memories we’ll have for life. That’s without even looking at the incredible quality of the photos you can take on the handset which I didn’t have space for here, but if you want to find out more about that, check out our other article here.
Sponsored by Samsung.
1 Samsung account login is required for certain AI features.
2 Compatible with select languages only. Google account login and network connection required.
3 Samsung account login is required. Requires network connection.
4 Compatible with select languages only. Google account login and network connection required. Google, Gemini and YouTube are trademarks of Google LLC.
5 Samsung account login is required. Certain languages may require language pack download. Service availability may vary by language. Accuracy of results is not guaranteed. Available in 20 languages from launch.