When Galaxy AI was released alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, it received a mixed reception.

I was one of those people — though I was watching from a glass window, as I only had the Samsung Galaxy S23 at the time, and that update didn't release until late March 2024 with One UI 6.1.

But when it came out, I tried it. I wasn't overly impressed, and it took me nearly two years to start using Samsung's AI suite properly.

That means no mechanical tests, no forced integration into my workflow just because they are free and it's there.

As a result of my more positive outlook, I picked the Galaxy AI features worth having, no matter what type of user you are, especially if you recently snagged a premium Samsung Galaxy phone and want to see what Samsung has in the bucket.

Now Brief

A quick glance at news, your schedule, and more

Now Brief debuted on One UI 7 when Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S25 lineup.

At first, it looked like another gimmick, with bare-bones support.

It wasn't doing anything special at the time, only showing basic weather reports you can find in widgets or giving a quick overview of calendar events.

All in all, the feature felt relatively unfinished.

Eventually, Now Brief received updates for deeper Samsung integration, including Samsung Health.

In One UI 9, Now Brief received another update. The next iteration of foldables and the flip feature upgraded this version of Now Brief.

Samsung Wallet can be integrated with Now Brief, and it has also added "Pay Now" integration for India (not supported yet in the US), which lets users pay bills from their lock screen or widget notifications.

But if you don't have One UI 9 and still have One UI 8.5 installed, Now Brief supports a range of options, including Smart home, Gallery stories, Digital Wellbeing, Events and tasks, Parking spot reminders, and plenty more.

You can toggle what you want included through the Now Brief settings section in Galaxy AI, then tap Content to include to find a list of toggles next to each category.

Samsung is continuously working on adding more options, including customization, which we should see in the next major update.

If you're a fan of widgets and like seeing condensed info before fully unlocking your phone, you'll definitely want to re-enable Now Brief.

Call Assist

Filter spam calls with an AI assistant

You will want to enable Call Assist just for Call Screening. It's a great way to sort out spam calls that accidentally get through or get picked up while you're busy.

The AI asks generic questions to the incoming caller, then produces a real-time text transcription on your screen.

You can then decide to pick up the call midway through if you deem it worth your time. Or, if you're busy, you can use the text call integration to type a response that the AI relays to the caller.

Any tool that reduces call spamming is a plus. I used to leave my phone on silent because I would get over five spam calls a day, and it would break my concentration for work.

Health Assist

Your personal health awareness companion

My mother hates Galaxy AI. I had to disable most of the features so she wouldn't be upset. Health Assist was one of the few that I kept.

She's a big advocate for using the Samsung Health app with her Galaxy Watch. She loves tracking her sleep stats, activity, blood pressure, and nutrition.

While Health Assist is not meant to replace a physician, it helps interpret some of your data across various categories.

It provides tailored recommendations based on patterns in what you can do to achieve your goals, or what might be weighing down on your lifestyle.

You can also use Health Assist to ask questions or even get an interpretation of the Energy Score or how various stats are measured.

It's also context-aware, so if there are factors that you can't do, for example, you work in an office and are unable to do steps, or you're on the night shift, you can feed this information to AI to improve its interpretation of why your scores are the way they are.

Accuracy still varies, and it will not provide a diagnosis or treatment for any medical condition. It is solely for fitness and awareness. It's best to treat this feature like a health companion rather than a professional physician.

Writing Assist

A useful tool for instant typing fixes

I hate to admit it, but lowercase 'i's and excessive shorthand in casual texts drive me crazy.

As a result of my pet peeve, I am self-conscious about my writing, even when I'm drafting a simple email to a friend or typing to a family member in Google Messages.

This is where I was happy to turn on Writing Assist, even if only for a quick grammar check before I tap "send" on my draft.

Writing Assist is tied to your Samsung Keyboard.

The feature has chat translation, as well as a compose feature that lets the AI rewrite text for you in a specified tone.

These aren't bad options, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've used them. Still, I am very happy to use suggested replies for my text messages.

A few months ago, I ended up replying more with it so that I wouldn't get distracted at work. I have family who worry if I don't respond (we have had outages, storms, and tornado watch warnings).

Plus, you can technically turn off Writing Assist (or Chat Assist) through the Keyboard app, which is why I prefer to keep this feature on by default in the Galaxy AI settings.

Notification highlights

Gives you a 'tldr' for your most pressing app alerts

I have been waiting for Notification highlights since March 2026. I was jealous that this feature debuted on the Galaxy S26 series, and since I owned a Galaxy S25+, I missed out until it came in a June 2026 update.

It's a fairly new Galaxy AI feature, and one that I welcome with open arms, as I tend to drown in notifications on my primary device.

As a result, I usually keep my Samsung on a strict Do Not Disturb lockdown to avoid it, but I have found it's easy to miss crucial notifications.

Notification highlights do the opposite. Rather than putting them on hold or hiding them as if they don't exist, the AI prioritizes them or provides a summary.

You can even use this for spam-heavy social apps like Discord and WhatsApp to see alerts from your personal groups and servers.

According to Samsung, all processing is done on your device to respect your privacy.

If you're a privacy-conscious user like me, toggle on Process data only on device in your Galaxy AI settings when possible.

I can't recommend checking out this feature enough, especially if you feel overwhelmed by notification management.

To Galaxy AI or not to Galaxy AI, that is the question

When Galaxy AI first released, I felt very lukewarm about it. On my old Galaxy S23 phone, I disabled most of its features when Galaxy AI became available.

But the longer I waited, the more I realized some tools proved helpful — even the old Smart Select was replaced by AI Select, which I use every day.

Without it, I'd feel lost, and that's when I began experimenting more with Galaxy AI in my workflow without forcing it, to see what sticks and what doesn't.

I rarely touch Photo Assist, and I've never used Interpreter, simply because the situation never called for it. But I know they exist, and I have them toggled on in my settings in case I ever need them.

Even if you leave these various options on, some of these features never feel intrusive.

Plus, you can safely ignore their existence on your Samsung phone until Samsung asks you to pay up for trying to use some of them. Still, those appearing under the Advanced Intelligence header should stay free for the foreseeable future.