The biggest showpiece of the newly announced Galaxy S24 is not its sleek new design, bright screen, or bigger battery. No, it is Galaxy AI with all its intelligent features and matching wow factor. But during the announcement, it said in small print, "free for a limited time." And now we know for how long.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 is an update we don't see every year. The design went up a notch, a new generation screen was introduced, specifications were improved, and several new features were added. But our attention was primarily focused on Galaxy AI, a collection of intelligent features using Generative AI.
This includes 'Live Translate,' 'Interpreter,' 'Note Assist,' 'Chat Assist,' 'Transcript Assist,' and 'Photo Assist.' You'll find them on your new Galaxy S24, S24+ and S24 Ultra. In time, these features should also come to other Galaxy phones; that's how much Samsung is betting on AI. But now it appears there is a limited duration to Galaxy AI before you have to pay for the features.
Free until the end of 2025
Samsung states that Galaxy AI will only be free for the first two years. That means you can use the intelligent AI Galaxy feature for free until 2025. That may sound a while from now, but what happens after that period? Will you be able to get a subscription? Will you have to buy a new Galaxy phone? We don't know (yet).
This course of action is not new. Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite is also free for a limited time with a new iPhone. The service costs Apple money since it has to keep a satellite service in the air. Samsung needs computing capacity for servers for Galaxy AI, and it doesn't want to give unlimited access to it.
