I tested all of Samsung's AI capabilities to learn which tools save time and which ones are gimmicks

Samsung has an ever-growing list of AI tools across several apps: Notes, Voice Recorder, Gallery, Browser, and more. Tracking them is a Herculean task, so most people stick to the one or two they read about or stumble upon and never go beyond. I wanted to know which ones deserve a place in your routine, so I tested every Samsung Galaxy AI tool on my S24 Ultra, running One UI 9. I ran them through everyday tasks like messy notes, quick recordings, long articles, and imperfect photos, and gave each tool a verdict based on performance: saves time, double-check the results, or gimmick. Here's how each one did. Samsung Notes' Galaxy AI is definitely worth keeping Auto format: one option shines, the other doesn't Samsung Notes' auto format tool has two features: Meeting notes and Headers and bullets. I pasted a messy block of meeting briefings into a new note. Meeting notes returned organized text with participants, topics, decisions, and action items, all sorted correctly. Headers and bullets chopped the notes into bullet points without organizing anything, which is the point of an auto-formatting tool. Verdict: Meeting notes saves time, while Headers and bullets is a gimmick. Summarize keeps all the key information The Summarize tool has two modes: Standard and Detailed, and both condense your note into a few points. In my tests, neither left out any important details, like specific numbers, who was doing what, and so on. Verdict: Saves time. Drawing assist is fun but forgettable Drawing assist turns a rough sketch into a finished image in a style you pick. It turned my wobbly house drawing into a polished pencil sketch. It's genuinely fun, but I can't think of a reason to use it twice. Verdict: Gimmick. Voice Recorder's best feature comes after your summary Action chips suggest your next steps Samsung's voice recorder has transcription and summary tools (which we'll get to), but the most useful part is the action buttons that come under a summary. For my short test recording, it gave me several events I could add to my calendar with one tap. Verdict: Saves time. Transcription needs very clear audio While testing the transcription tool, I made two recordings. My first recording wasn't bad by any means; it was just me in a quiet room, but the transcript came back with errors like "opens@ten instead of name" when I said, "opens at 10 instead of nine." In my second take, I was more careful to separate individual words, which I wouldn't do in a regular conversation. Even then, it still heard "expense reports" as "experience reports." If you record a lot of voice notes, speak clearly and keep the phone close. Verdict: Double-check the results. Summarize may drop important details Unlike the summarize tool in Notes, Voice Recorder's Summarize tool isn't always spot on. Even with a near-perfect transcript, my summary left out key details and added a vague line I never said. And if there are transcription errors, it carries them over too. Verdict: Double-check the results. Translations inherit the transcript's mistakes Like summaries, translations also rely on Voice Recorder's transcripts, so they carry over errors. A missing full stop in my transcript merged two sentences in the French version. Verdict: Double-check the results. Generative Edit had two hits and one miss Credit: Samsung Gallery's Generative Edit has three main tools: AI eraser, Move, and Create. I had a picture of four Galaxy phones with an unripe orange in the corner. AI eraser removed the orange without leaving any smudge. I gave Create two tasks: swap the orange for an apple and repaint the four phones in four different colors. It nailed both. Move shifted one phone across the frame but made it longer and added two camera lenses in the process. Verdict: AI eraser and Create save time; Move is a gimmick. Instant slow-mo just works I really enjoyed testing Instant slow-mo. Press and hold a video in your Samsung Gallery, and it slows down on the spot. It occasionally stutters, but it's easy to miss. Verdict: Saves time. My FanCam (One UI 9) needs a wide shot My FanCam is an interesting one because it genuinely works. But the result depends on your video. It crops in on a subject you choose and follows them for the clip's duration. I found that it works best with a wide shot where your subject is visible almost the whole time. If they leave the frame, it zooms back out. If they're already the main subject, it barely changes anything. Verdict: Double-check the results. Edit suggestions rarely suggest anything useful If you swipe up on any photo in Samsung Gallery, it brings up the picture's details, along with AI suggestions for possible fixes. For most of my photos, it only offered Live effect and Remaster. Erase reflections only appeared when I pointed a flashlight at my laptop screen and turned on my camera's flash. So I had two big balls of light reflecting from my laptop screen. But it simply dimmed the screen, while the light spots remained. Erase shadows took several tries to appear, though it cleaned a shadow off a handwritten page after it did. Verdict: Gimmick. Galaxy AI reads better than it writes Circle to Search finds anything on your screen Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police Circle to Search is a Google feature, but Samsung includes it with Galaxy AI. Long-press the navigation handle at the bottom of your screen, then circle, tap, or scribble over anything to search for it. It can also copy or translate any text on your screen without leaving the app. It's by far the Galaxy AI tool I use most without thinking about it. Verdict: Saves time. Browsing assist summarizes and translates well Samsung Browser's Galaxy AI button can summarize and translate. Summarize condensed a full AP article accurately in both Standard and Detailed modes. Translate turned the entire page into French, including the credit text on the header image, the text element inside the image, and the page's Like, Follow, and Thread buttons. Verdict: Saves time. Interpreter is great for quick conversations Interpreter is Samsung's tool for translating face-to-face conversations across languages. You can find it in Quick Settings. I enabled it and asked a question in English, and it correctly translated it to French, with a button to play it out loud. When I replied in French, it translated my reply into English. Verdict: Saves time. Spelling and grammar fixes your text but stiffens it Samsung Keyboard's spelling and grammar tool fixed all the mistakes in the sloppy message I gave it. But it was a bit too professional. It changed "can't" to "cannot" and added semicolons. The result was correct, just stiffer than anything you'd send a coworker. Verdict: Double-check the results. Now Nudge (One UI 9) creates shortcuts from your dates Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police | Wongsakorn 2468 / Shutterstock Now Nudge analyzes your screen in real time and offers fast, one-tap shortcuts based on the information it reads. When I typed a note about doing something on Thursday at 3 pm, it hyperlinked Thursday at 3 pm. Tapping the link took me to a calendar event with all the relevant details from my text. I only needed to fill in what was missing and save. It worked in Google Messages too. It's probably my favorite tool of the bunch. Verdict: Saves time. Now Brief's Custom cards (One UI 9) don't do a lot One UI 9 lets you build your own card for Now Brief. Right now, there are only three options: Weather, Health, and Videos. All three overlap with Now Brief's regular content, so custom cards mostly let you choose which details appear and when. Until Samsung adds more options, it's not very useful. Verdict: Gimmick, for now. Call Brief (One UI 9) never showed up Call Brief is meant to show relevant events and information on your call screen. So, it only shows up when you have a calendar event with the person you're talking to, or when you get a call from an international number. Unless you frequently schedule events with friends and family or call work colleagues, you'll hardly notice it. It never appeared on any of my calls, likely because of that narrow scope. Verdict: Gimmick, for now. Credit: Lucas Gouveia / Android Police I'll definitely keep using Circle to Search, Meeting notes and Summarize in Samsung Notes, Voice Recorder's action chips, Browsing assist's summaries, Interpreter, Now Nudge, and Gallery's AI eraser, Create, and Instant slow-mo tools. Everything else is worth trying once. Just don't expect them to change how you use your phone. Tools like Now Brief and Call Brief are also worth keeping for when they get more features. If you shoot a lot of video, here's how Samsung's Audio Eraser handles noisy clips.