Summary
- The Galaxy S25 series will process generative AI photo editing locally, reducing cloud dependence.
- The change is possible due to the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s significant performance and efficiency gains.
- On-device AI processing boosts speed and privacy, helps streamline tools, and increases the potential for novel app functionality.
Offloading AI processing to powerful cloud data centers enables impressive functionality and could encourage good smartphone battery life. It also introduces lag, and necessitates an active internet connection when using features like Samsung Notes’ Summarize or Samsung Gallery’s generative editing.
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As discovered by diligent digital detective AssembleDebug on X/Twitter, the Galaxy S25 family will start changing that by processing generative AI photo editing locally on your device (Source). This should further help untether everyday activities from the cloud by utilizing the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s vast capabilities.
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The start of what’s (hopefully) a shift to on-device processing
While reviewing code underlying Samsung’s versatile collection of apps, prolific leaker and feature explorer AssembleDebug spotted a set of comments outlining certain features available to different chipsets. Among them was a reference to the SM8750, Qualcomm’s famous Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-a-chip. The code comments name three tools ostensibly linked to the upcoming S25 series:
- FEATURE_WALLPAPER
- FEATURE_INOUT_PAINTING
- FEATURE_GEN_EDIT_ON_DEVICE
The last of the feature provisions AssembleDebug found sports an obvious enough name to infer what’s coming. Barring an overwhelmingly misleading naming scheme, “FEATURE_GEN_EDIT_ON_DEVICE” should allow for generative AI photo editing on the Galaxy S25 series without needing to send images to the cloud. That’s a win for speed, convenience, and privacy.
The code also mentions inpainting and outpainting, which refer to blending edits into an image, and expanding an image outside its original bounds, respectively. In theory, those would fall under the umbrella of generative AI editing, although the minimal evidence so far doesn’t explicitly make clear where cloud processing becomes a requirement. Increasing flexibility via on-device processing, and generally shoring up and improving Galaxy AI performance, could go a long way toward making it a viable reason to upgrade to a new Samsung flagship.
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Encouraging adoption of on-device AI processing
An important step in the right direction
Currently, Galaxy AI generative photo lets you almost magically isolate objects within images and move, resize, or erase them, but cloud processing takes on most of the heavy lifting. While theoretically good for your battery life, it also forces your phone to upload all relevant data to the cloud, and locks you out of resource-intensive features if you don’t have internet access.
Google’s Gemini Live toolkit, for example, loses almost all functionality when you’re offline. Galaxy AI takes a more localized approach in some cases, with translation tools in Samsung’s Phone, Keyboard, and Notes apps, as well as Instant Slow-Mo frame interpolation, already running exclusively on the device.
It’s unclear if Samsung’s Sketch to Image feature will make the cut for on-device processing.
The slow but meaningful migration to on-device processing comes partly at the mercy of hardware. The powerful, flexible Snapdragon 8 Elite breaks new ground for mobile devices’ ability to run demanding software. In terms of AI, the chipset lets handheld devices leverage data-heavy models at speed and without demanding excessive battery power. The convenience and privacy of offline processing should help streamline AI tools and their adoption. Only time will tell what additional, novel functionality Galaxy AI will empower smartphones with, but genAI photo editing likely won’t be the last.
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