TL;DR
- Samsung has introduced a new Now Brief feature on the Galaxy S25 series.
- Now Brief provides tailored information throughout the day, including weather, travel details, health insights, and more.
- The Galaxy S25 series also integrates Google’s Gemini AI more deeply, enabling advanced cross-app actions.
Samsung has launched its Galaxy S25 series, and as anticipated, the phones’ AI features took center stage at the event. While many expected Samsung to supercharge its own Bixby assistant with AI, the company surprised everyone by leaning heavily on Google’s Gemini AI.
This collaboration has introduced new features designed to make Samsung’s flagship phones more proactive and intelligent companions. One such feature is “Now Brief,” which offers users a personalized summary of their day, reminding us of the Google Now feature from the Android KitKat era.
What is Now Brief?
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
Now Brief acts as a contextual hub, delivering tailored updates based on the time of day. In the morning, for example, it may show weather forecasts, health metrics like a sleep score pulled from a Galaxy Watch, and a rundown of events scheduled for the day.
Later, during a commute, the feature might suggest navigation routes, start music playback, and even recommend a coffee stop based on nearby promotions. By evening, it could offer a recap of the day, highlighting photos taken, progress toward fitness goals, and other notable moments.
This feature is designed to work seamlessly with Samsung’s ecosystem, pulling data from Galaxy apps, connected devices, and even some third-party apps like Spotify and WhatsApp. Samsung has highlighted how AI will play a pivotal role in ensuring that the updates feel personalized and timely rather than generic or repetitive.
Complementing Now Brief is the Now Bar, a lock screen feature that condenses similar functionality into a compact, glanceable format. It sounds very similar to Apple’s Dynamic Island, offering quick updates such as live sports scores, travel passes, and summaries without needing to unlock the phone.
However, Samsung’s design choice to place it near the bottom of the screen should make it more ergonomic and practical, especially for one-handed use.
A lot more AI in your Galaxy
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
Galaxy S25 Plus
The Now Brief and Now Bar features are part of Samsung’s One UI 7, so these features should make their way to older Galaxy devices as well. One UI 7 also integrates Gemini more deeply across Galaxy devices. Gemini now enables advanced cross-app actions on the Galaxy S25 series, allowing users to carry out complex tasks. These features definitely sound promising, and we can’t wait to test them out for ourselves to see how they fare in real-world usage.
For instance, you could ask it to find a restaurant for an upcoming meeting, verify its availability, and send the details to your contact — all in one go. Another example involves extracting key information from a YouTube video and turning it into a note with a single command.
Although these AI-powered tools are exciting, they come with an inherent trade-off. For Now Brief, Now Bar, and Gemini to be as helpful as promised, the system would need extensive access to user data across apps and devices. For those wary of privacy risks, the idea of an AI assistant scanning through apps to find links or gather context might feel intrusive, even if it’s meant to enhance the user experience.
Nevertheless, it’s evident that Samsung and all other phone manufacturers are betting big on making AI a core part of the smartphone experience.
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