Samsung positions its AI tools as helpful assistants, but I started craving a fresh experience. I was beginning to wonder if I had outsourced too much.
While I didn’t want to break my phone, I wanted to see what it could do without trying to think for me. So I turned off all the AI features on my phone and gave myself three days to live without the hand-holding, and here’s what happened.
Related
72 hours with the Samsung Galaxy S25: I’d like this just as much without the AI
72 hours with Samsung’s latest
How to turn off Galaxy AI features
Source: Lucas Gouveia/Android Police | fizkes/Shuterstock
If you’re wondering how reliant you’ve become, Samsung makes it easy to find out. Here’s how to shut off Galaxy AI:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Galaxy AI.
- Toggle off features one by one.
- Turn on Process Data Only On Device (Optional)
- Check individual app settings (such as Samsung Notes and Internet), as some may be buried under submenus.
Typing without AI made every message feel high stakes
My first morning without Galaxy AI felt like traveling back to 2010. Samsung keyboard’s predictive text and autocorrect were gone. Words like “definitely” turned into “definitley.” I had to find my typos and manually fix each one. My thumbs missed the AI safety net.
Those close to me found the typos amusing, but sending a mangled sentence to a client or my boss? I triple-checked every word as if drafting a legal contract. Usually, I’d tap Make this more professional for a corporate polish. Now I was second-guessing every adjective.
Later that day, I attempted to catch up on some research. By default, Browsing Assist in the Internet app would summarize lengthy articles. However, on this AI-free day, every article I wanted to skim demanded a full read.
With Note Assist turned off, my workflow was disrupted. I habitually paste my findings into Samsung Notes and rely on the AI to summarize and format them. I was back to manually organizing every to-do list and bullet point.
Without generative edits, I had to live with imperfections
By the second day, I was already over it. I took some photos, and the editing was slower with Photo Assist turned off. AI Edit Suggestions and the Generative Edit were not allowed.
This would be frustrating for someone unfamiliar with photo editing. Most people don’t know how to highlight a landscape without cranking up the saturation until it looks radioactive. Basic terms like exposure, hue, and vibrance aren’t beginner-friendly, and aimlessly playing with sliders often leads to an over-edited mess.
This wasn’t a dealbreaker for me. I’ve spent enough time on Adobe apps to know my way around the basics.
Related
9 photography apps that will change how you shoot on Android
Shoot better photos without buying a new camera
What I missed was the Generative AI options. I took a shot at the park, only to find a jogger photobombing in the background. Normally, I’d use Object Eraser to tap him out of existence. This time, I had to accept him as part of the scenery.
Another shot from the day was slightly blurry. AI would usually catch that and suggest a quick fix, but now the photo was as good as lost.
While you can use third-party editing apps, having those tools built into the Gallery app is a blessing we often take for granted.
Without Gemini, voice commands were off the table
Source: Samsung
Turning off Samsung’s Galaxy AI was one thing, but unplugging Gemini changed an entirely different layer of the phone experience.
Commands like “Call mom,” “What’s the weather,” or “Play this on Spotify” stopped working. I had to tap through apps manually. Simple voice-driven actions turned into a series of swipes, scrolls, and searches.
I also noticed Gemini’s integration with my smart home when it was gone. Routines such as turning off the lights when I said “Good night” no longer worked. I had to rely on manual smart home controls or switch to third-party automation apps.
Related
How to use Google Gemini to create home automations
Turn your home automation ideas into reality with a few words
Small AI features turned out to be surprisingly useful
Some AI features didn’t feel like a big deal when I turned them off. Getting by was easy. It just needed more tapping. Others created noticeable gaps.
Take Now Brief, for example. My Galaxy summarized weather, appointments, commute times, and news each morning. Losing it did not block my access to information. I could still pull that info manually by opening individual apps.
Then there’s Circle to Search, a habit I didn’t realize had become second nature.
I saw a lamp in a home decor video and tried to circle it, only to find the feature turned off. I had to pause the video, return to find the exact frame, take a screenshot, open Google, upload it, and then start the reverse image search.
What used to take two seconds now felt like a mini side quest.
These weren’t flashy features. They didn’t radically change how I used my phone, but they smoothed out the friction in tiny ways I only appreciated after they were gone.
Related
Turning it all off came with a few welcome surprises
Source: Lucas Gouveia/Android Police | quietbits/Shutterstock
Despite all this, there were two positives. First, the phone felt noticeably more peaceful. The stream of news flashes and app suggestions went quiet. My phone stopped eavesdropping on background conversations and trying to answer questions no one asked.
It became a tool I controlled, rather than one competing for my attention.
Battery life also improved. I noticed more juice left than usual, but it wasn’t night and day. Samsung’s cloud-backed features weren’t pinging servers. Still, the extra battery life did not compensate for the lost convenience.
Related
I added hours to my phone’s battery life by changing these 6 settings
Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be so complicated
These were the features I missed by day 3
By lunchtime on day 3, I had cracked. Gemini was the first to return. While sometimes overstepping with suggestions I didn’t request, it was the glue that held everything together.
Writing Assist came next. Losing predictive text and autocorrect tanked my productivity. It might use more processing power, but the time it saved me was undeniable. A few extra percent of battery drain was a small price to avoid constant backspacing and typo cleanup.
Photo Assist followed. Removing an object or fixing pictures with a tap was too convenient to pass up.
I decided to leave Now Brief off. It always felt like a pushy feed. I prefer opening apps myself when I need something. However, I turned Circle to Search back on.
Samsung lets you use AI on your terms
Ultimately, I kept the AI tools that made my life easier and ditched the ones that added noise. If you’re curious, flip the switch. You might not stay fully unplugged, but you’ll figure out which features work for you.
If privacy is a concern, don’t give up AI yet. Samsung’s Process data only on device control allows many AI features to run locally. This is a practical compromise. It limits cloud-based tools such as Generative Edit and Advanced Summarization. Other features, such as Real-time translation and transcription, still run locally.
