If you currently own a Galaxy Watch 4 or Watch 5, hold on to them because Samsung is done with its launch of One UI 6 with AI.
The company announced earlier this week that it was expanding its Galaxy AI toolset to wearable devices, namely its line of smartwatches. “By combining powerful on-device AI with the extensive Samsung Health app, Samsung is on track to create some of the most personalized and secure fitness reports to date,” the company explained in the announcement.
The features are divided into Energy Score, which measures your daily energy point through sleep stats, previous day’s activity, core rate variation, and more. There’s also a newly improved sleep AI algorithm, which includes measuring deeper sleep metrics such as sleep movements, sleep latency, and breathing rate when you’re asleep.
On the training front, a new educational regimen tool will create personalized workouts with other workouts, while riders will get detailed aerobic threshold measurements and riders will temporarily calculate their functional strength threshold with AI. The personalized wellness advice tool will provide you with information on how to progress with advice based on your metrics.
Samsung says those devices will be incorporated into the new Galaxy Watches that will likely be announced next month. Along with the Galaxy Watch 4, Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, Galaxy Watch 5, Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic a Beta program starting in June.
With this announcement, it turns out that the practice of throwing two-year-old devices into the dust is about to disappear. Tech brands are adopting a longevity-focused strategy to promote devices. The days of a single Android update for $700 devices seem to be over.
The Galaxy Watch 4, for example, was released in 2021. A year before AI, as we understand it today, burst onto the scene. Watch 4 owners can’t have imagined getting a raft of cutting-edge skills years after they bought it.
But there’s a problem: Samsung has reiterated that those AI teams will only be available until 2025. The company said this when it announced Galaxy AI in January and hasn’t expanded its plans since then.
The reality is that there is a cost to extending the life cycle of a device. Whether that’s through software and security updates for eight years, or through new AI tools that cost millions to develop. Samsung may or may not charge for Galaxy AI features next year, but there is a tried and tested sales method commonly applied, in a different industry, of getting people hooked on something for free first. We can hope for the best, but these language models that AI-features are born from, are not cheap to build or maintain.
With this announcement, I suspect Samsung is laying the groundwork for a health subscription plan. Of Apple, Google and Oura, it is the only company that doesn’t currently have a premium tier for its fitness platform—Samsung Health. The arrival of the Galaxy Ring will likely mean a monthly subscription for in-depth features, which is exactly what Oura does (rumors have pointed to this, too).
I can’t think of a clearer example of premium features than those that are powered by AI. There is a clear pathway for the Korean company to introduce a new pay monthly plan for its best health features.
The question then becomes are they worth paying for? In Oura’s case, if you have already shelled out for a smart ring, then yes. The same will likely apply to the Galaxy Ring. But from the evidence we have of AI-powered features on Galaxy phones, I’m less convinced.
Google’s new One plan, which includes Gemini Advanced with Nest Aware and Fitbit Premium, is rarely worth it for me. As wise as Gemini and Fitbit Premium are, neither is attractive enough to add another monthly payment to my pile. However, if Gemini had completed my smart home and could simply perform complex queries in herbal language, while also syncing with other Google products that I use regularly, then yes, I would pay for it.
Similarly, if Samsung’s Galaxy AI on a smartwatch can deliver insights into my health, and create a genuinely personalized fitness plan based on the data it has collected, then I might be happy to hand over some cash. How Samsung differentiates between its AI and regular smartwatch features will be interesting, because the announced skills sound like standard Galaxy Watch experiences. If the Korean company expects you to pay for them next year, there will need to be clear, standout AI features that dramatically enhance the Galaxy Watch experience.
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