The S24’s Galaxy AI features are actually hyping me up for the Pixel 9. Here’s why

So then, Google. If I show you a picture of the Pixel 5 and the Pixel 6, can you spot the difference immediately? Let's see:

You should be able to, because that’s when the Pixel line found its identity. Starting from the nature-inspired color variants and going over the unique visor aesthetic for the camera bump, through to the slew of AI-inspired features: that’s what identity is all about.

And now Google has gone and given a lot of that last bit away to Samsung for its Galaxy S24 series of phones in the form of Galaxy AI, so what gives?!

Is Samsung just playing catch up?

Back when 2023 hadn’t happened yet, AI still existed and a lot of phones used it. It wasn’t all about AI, sometimes it was just clever, intelligent programming, but all the same: algorithms were doing their thing in the background to help you get the most out of your tech.

I mean, typing on an iPhone has felt good and proper since forever now and that has always been about clever programs doing accurate guesswork, so there’s that.

But then 2023 happened, ChatGPT blew up and suddenly it became important to market features as AI, wherever applicable. Hence, Google spent a lot of time promoting the Pixel 8 line of phones via AI features, related to camera capabilities or otherwise.

Oh, and starting from the Pixel 8 line moving forward, Google is offering a whopping seven years of software support and security updates. That’s going to become important a bit later.

And just a few months later, this little company from Cupertino that you may have heard of introduced this banger of a smartphone called the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which had a body made of titanium. Well, sort of, it was more so covered in titanium, but it makes for a great banner, doesn’t it? And, obviously, when you have that, you market it hard as all hell.

 

So, fast forward a couple of more months and it’s 2024. The time comes for the introduction of the first and possibly most impactful flagship Android smartphone of the year and it’s made by Samsung: a manufacturer with years upon years of experience in the industry.

And it introduces the Galaxy S24, which has a variant made with titanium and then a bunch of AI features sprinkled across the series. Oh, and the phones come with seven years of OS upgrades and security updates. Sound familiar?

Huh.

I mean, it’s cool, it’s great even! #NoHate

And I honestly didn’t know what I expected. But it was “more”. And not just from Samsung: of Google too. Because while I can totally get why Samsung would want to climb on the AI bandwagon, I can’t for the life of me understand why Google would give away a huge chunk of the Pixel’s identity to one of it’s biggest competitors?

Was this Google’s plan all along?!

Google fought really hard to set up a proper identity for its Pixel line of phones. In fact, I recently talked about how the Pixel phones may sound too good to be true on paper, which may have led to an opposite effect, where people find them hard to trust.

And we can sort of see how that may be the case, since adoption rates haven’t gone through the roof (yet).

But that doesn’t change the fact of the matter: Google already hired the people, thought up the projects, realized them, tested them, implemented them, made them work on a series of phones, neither of which broke the bank, and then had those released to the public. Oh, and then the marketing happened too, which I hear is a pretty costly affair.

Not to mention that the Pixel 8 line is already offering an outstanding support lifecycle, meaning that Google isn’t exactly banking on you upgrading every other year.

So, given the ultimate words of wisdom “money good”, I must ask: “income where”?

Well, if the Big G spent all this time — and effort, and money — developing features, which were meant to raise up the Pixel line, why would it give those away… Unless it could be all part of a plan, that still aims to achieve that exact same thing?

Because, here’s the deal: if you are in need of a killer feature for your product and I give you one of mine, fully knowing that I have something better to reveal down the line, I’m essentially guaranteeing myself a certain degree of success.

Galaxy AI: a low-key Pixel 9 commercial, sponsored by Samsung

So if I’m Google and I give you some of my phone line’s standout features, such as:

• The power to delete stuff from your shots
• The ability to move subjects in the frame around
• Want to remove reflections? You can
• Photo blur, to add some sweet bokeh to your shot
• Straighten up out a shot and then use generative fill
• Automatic suggestions for overall photo improvement
• Transcription and Speaker labels for the Audio Recorder

Fully knowing that I’m risking losing the identity of my own flagship series of phones in the process, then I must have some sort of ace up my sleeve, right?

And here’s where my crazy conspiracy theory comes in: I’m hyped about the Pixel 9 now. Because since all of these are no longer Pixel-exclusive features, can you imagine what Google might have in store for us for its upcoming line of phones?

The Pixel 9: an AI powerhouse (hopefully in blue)

Now, I won’t pretend like I have any idea of what the Pixel 9 is going to be about. I don’t think that Google is going to aim at another revamp, because it would feel too soon.

Thanks to the efforts of the Pixel 7 and Pixel 8, the surface-level details, such as formfactor, general design and screen specs have been ironed out, I think that the focus will be on the inside.

And, obviously: AI is still the trend.

At a bare minimum, I think that it would be fair to expect for Google to equip Pixel users with supercharged versions of the features mentioned above. But from there on out? The sky’s the limit, especially if Bard gets a green light to come out and play.

At the same time, it’s been almost a full year since AI has been the talk of the town in the realm of tech and it already feels like we’re at a point of stagnation. The features? About the same. The limitations? Forced and tough to play around (for good reason). So it will take some real creativity and technical prowess to figure out how to make the most of this situation.

And you know what? I think that Google might be just the company, capable of pulling such a thing off.

... And when it happens, I just hope that there’s a proper variant in proper blue, because I’m honestly tired of these mellow, cowardly colors.