On Wednesday, Samsung unveiled how SmartThings, its smart home platform, will introduce AI features that allow users to simplify their everyday life through ambient sensing technology and generative AI. At Samsung Unpacked 2025, the company said the upcoming “Home AI” features will gather insights from a user’s everyday life to create personalized experiences.
Samsung shared that SmartThings will use advanced sensor technology, like millimeter-wave (mmWave) and sound sensor devices in users homes, to understand customers’ daily activities like cooking or sleeping and create the ideal environment.
It’s an ambitious vision. For instance, if a user is exercising, said Samsung, SmartThings will be able to detect which kind of exercise is being done and guide the person on their form. If a user is drying her hair, SmartThings will detect the sound and movement of the action and start that individual’s robot vacuum to clean up stands that have fallen on the floor.
Or, SmartThings’ may activate a user’s air purifier to remove allergens from the air after sensing the person’s miniature pinscher jumping onto the couch.
As for its generative AI technology, SmartThings will ostensibly have a deeper understanding of a user’s home’s environment, allowing for additional personalization.
For instance, users will be able to take pictures of objects like chairs so that Samsung’s Map View technology — which allows someone to create a 3D map of their home to find and operate the different devices there — can enable more intuitive interactions. SmartThings might adjust a user’s lighting or temperature settings based on their proximity to certain areas or objects, for example.
The company says all information will be stored locally on a user’s network, and that none of a person’s data will be stored in the cloud or accessible to third parties without that individual’s consent.
Samsung says these updates will rollout throughout 2025 and 2026.
The Samsung Galaxy S25’s side button fires up Google Gemini
A new day has dawned for the Samsung side button. At Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, the company announced a small — but meaningful — tweak arriving on the Galaxy S25 line. As it continues to focus more efforts on mobile AI, Samsung is offering up easier access to Google Gemini, by way of the button.
The news arrives after years of failed attempts to gain traction with Samsung’s own Bixby smart assistant. It also follows word that Gemini is effectively replacing Google Home on Android devices — though the assistant will live on through smart home products like the Nest thermostat.
Generative AI generally — and Gemini specifically — were at the heart of Wednesday’s Unpacked event. Mobile companies are increasingly looking toward platforms like this — and Apple Intelligence/ChatGPT — to justify device updates that were once largely the realm of hardware advancements. But the offerings on the S25 are still driven by neural cores on the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
In line with Apple’s recent updates to Siri, Gemini offers more cross-app functionality, via Google apps like Maps, YouTube, and Messages, along with Spotify. Extensions also provides access to useful Samsung apps, including Reminder, Calendar, Notes, and Clock.
Much like Google’s Home pivot, Samsung hasn’t abandoned Bixby. Earlier this month at CES, the company showcased how the smart assistant will live on via its line of appliances and other home products.
The Samsung Galaxy S25 line is up for preorder and set to start shipping on February 7.
Samsung Unpacked 2025: Google is bringing improved hearing aid features
Alongside a slew of announcements tied to Samsung’s Galaxy S25 launch at Samsung Unpacked 2025 on Wednesday, Google announced a pair of accessibility improvements for Android. This includes improvements to the screen reader, along with hearing aid functionality.
The hearing aid updates arrive after Google expanded the offering as part of its Android 15 rollout. Last year was a big year for the hearing aid industry, as the FDA approved over-the-counter access to the technology in May. This, in turn, has created a new industry of smart hearing aids tied to mobile devices.
In September, Apple was granted FDA approval for AirPods Pro to double as hearing aids. It’s a move that will no doubt be echoed by several earbud manufacturers in the coming year, facilitated by both first-party software and Android updates.
Wednesday’s updates bring LE Bluetooth compatibility, which, in turn, delivers features like hands-free calling and lower latency connections. Along with the S25, the feature is rolling out for the S24 and Google’s own Pixel 9, courtesy of the Android 16 beta updates.
At the same time, Android’s TalkBack screen reader. People who use braille will be able to access HID (human interface design). Introducing the HID standard in 2018, the USB-IF foundation noted that it will, “make it easier to use a braille display across operating systems and different types of hardware. It will also simplify development, removing the need for braille devices to have custom software and drivers created for a particular operating system or screen reader.”
The feature is arriving on the Galaxy S25 in the coming weeks, followed by all smartphones and tablets running Android 15 in the coming months. TalkBack is also getting improved image descriptions through Google Gemini.
