Some Galaxy AI features could be rolled out to the Galaxy S22 series

After we experienced Galaxy AI, one of our questions was whether Samsung would roll out these new AI features to older Galaxy devices or not. Samsung initially said that the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, and Galaxy Tab S9 series will get the AI features starting at the end of this month.

Today Samsung held its 55th annual shareholders’ meeting. The President of Samsung MX, TM Roh said “We are gradually preparing plans to support a fully-fledged Galaxy AI experience,”

Samsung is reviewing whether it will roll out Galaxy AI to the Galaxy S22 series

The President hinted that the company is considering rolling out Galaxy AI features to the Galaxy S22 series. “We are conducting a lot of review on the previous model,” he said.

However, he points out that some features of Galaxy AI run on the device. These features need current flagship hardware as the minimum system requirement to run the LLMs (Large Language Models). “Galaxy AI is aiming for ‘hybrid AI’ that combines not only cloud-based AI but also on-device AI technology that is greatly affected by hardware performance,” TM Roh explained. He added that running the models on devices will require more time and effort to optimize the models according to the older chips.

Regarding the lack of system resources on Galaxy S22 series devices, Newsis pointed out that if the Galaxy S23 FE runs on the same Exynos 2200 chip it powers 2023’s Galaxy S23FE. So, if Samsung manages to run the on-device Galaxy AI features on the Galaxy S23 FE, it will certainly be able to accomplish the same with the Galaxy S22 series.

Nonetheless, the company has not yet mentioned any possible timeline for the rollout of Galaxy AI features on the Galaxy S22 series. There is also no mention of any specific feature that could be available on older models. However, phones below the Galaxy S22 series won’t get any additions from Galaxy AI.

Old or incapable hardware might not be the only issue holding back the rollout

Earlier, we reported about the Galaxy S24 series’ possibility of getting a new on-device Galaxy AI feature. We also noted that the current list of on-device features (that require new and capable hardware) is quite limited. Most of the features currently run on servers and hence they aren’t actually limited by the phone’s system resources.

So, technically, the server-side features (most of the features) should run on the older devices without a problem. However, rolling out those features to older devices means serving even more users for free. It might not be sustainable for companies. This is why Samsung is deciding if it should run them on the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22.