In January 2024, Samsung introduced its latest line of flagship devices, the Samsung Galaxy S24 series. This series brings a unique blend of power and affordability, featuring the compact yet powerful Galaxy S24, the cost-effective and feature-rich Galaxy S24+, and the top-tier Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. These phones are equipped with stunning screens, the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, and a wealth of AI features. Dive into this list of tips and tricks to uncover the best distinctive features and make the most of your S24 series phone.
1 Try Circle to Search
The most useful feature introduced with the S24 series, which is also made its way to the Google Pixel 8 series, is Circle to Search. This feature allows you to circle anything on your screen with your finger, or your stylus if you have the S24 Ultra, and search for it.
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Circle to Search is best in visual search situations, such as searching for an actor or a cool pair of shoes. You can search for anything you see on your screen, bringing Google search to a new level. Tap and hold the home button or navigation bar, and you'll be circling away.
2 Talk to anyone in any language
Live Translate helps you communicate with others, no matter where you are. Live Translate translates two-way calls in real time with users who speak different languages. There's a short pause between speaking and the translation occurring. This process occurs on-device, cutting down the time between speaking and translation. First, you'll activate the feature. Then, when you're on a call, tap the Call Assist button and tap the Live Translate option.
In addition to translations for phone calls, you can translate text messages. Open a messaging app, tap the writing assist button, and tap chat translation. This translates texts that you receive in other languages to your native language. It also translates your text messages to the other person's native language.
These features work for the following languages:
- Simplified Chinese
- English
- French
- German
- Hindi
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Thai
- Vietnamese
3 Take smarter notes
The S24 series includes helpful Galaxy AI features in the Samsung Notes app. The first is auto-formatting, which automatically organizes your notes in an easy-to-understand way. To use the feature, tap the Notes assist icon and select the Auto format option. The AI creates bullet points and headers for your notes that are organized in an easy-to-digest way.
Source: Samsung
Another feature in this suite is Summarize, which has the AI summarize a note you've taken, so you can quickly review it. Summarize is activated by tapping the Notes assist icon and selecting the Summarize option. You can choose a Standard summary or a Detailed summary, which gives you more details.
If you want to spell-check the text you pasted into a note, use AI to check it. To activate it, select the Notes assist icon and tap Correct spelling. You're guided through the AI's suggestions and can accept them or keep your original spelling.
Source: Samsung
You can also translate notes, which is similar to translating texts. To activate it, tap the Notes assist icon and select Translate. The AI auto-detects the note's language and translates it into your language. You can also manually select the source and target languages.
4 Record and transcribe conversations
Whether you're a journalist or are doing an interview for a paper, it's important to have a recording of your conversation to review later. It's also useful to make a transcription of the conversation so that you can pull quotes and review important information. The S24s have you covered with Transcribe assist in the Voice Recorder app.
Using the feature is as simple as making a recording and tapping the transcribe button. When transcribing, you can choose the language to transcribe it to. You can translate the text into another language when you have the transcription. Galaxy AI also allows you to create a summary of your conversation by tapping the summary tab at the top of the transcription.
5 Let AI edit your photos
AI is all over the S24, and nowhere is it more obvious than the Gallery app. You'll find new photo editing features powered by the new Galaxy AI. The first of these features is Edit Suggestions, which uses AI to suggest edits or changes to your photos. These suggestions vary depending on the photo and could range from changing colors to removing an item. To use this feature, select a picture in the Samsung Gallery app and tap the i in a circle icon to pull up the suggestions.
Source: Samsung
Integrated with Edit Suggestions is Generative Edit, which fills in parts of photos that are edited. This can fill in areas where you erased or moved objects, fill in parts of your photo when you straighten it, and more. Many of the edits from Edit Suggestions leverage Generative Edit to make your photo look correct.
6 Use Instant Slow-mo to add a little extra to videos
If you've taken a video and thought "Wow, that would be so cool in slow-mo," the S24 series has the feature for you. It's called Instant Slow-mo. It turns a normal video into a slow-mo video. It uses AI to generate the missing frames necessary to create a slow-mo video. To use it instantaneously, tap and hold the screen while playing a normal video in the Samsung Gallery app.
To permanently change the speed of a video, edit it in the Gallery app. A 30 FPS video can be reduced to half or quarter speed, while a 60 FPS video can be reduced to up to an eighth speed. This feature works on videos taken on the device or videos from elsewhere.
7 Customize the look of your phone
To make your new S24 device yours, customize how the software looks. Use Material You on your device to customize a variety of things, from the color palette of the UI to the look of the clock on your lock screen. To access the color features, long press the home screen, tap Wallpaper and style, and select Color palette. To access lock screen features, go to Settings and select Lock screen. You'll find settings for the clock style, widgets, and more.
8 Change your side key shortcut
The side key is a useful way to access certain actions quickly. Out of the box, holding it down launches Bixby. You can modify this setting so that the side key does something else, like bring up the power menu. Open the Settings app, go to Advanced features, and select Side key.
9 Use the S pen to set shortcuts
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra also has a built-in S pen for ease of use. Although the S pen has been available on other devices, the Galaxy S24 Ultra brings quality-of-life improvements. You can add more personalization using your S pen. Double-tap the screen and hold down the S pen button to trigger a shortcut to your favorite app. To set up shortcuts, open the Pentastic app, tap Double tap shortcut, and turn the toggle on for your selected app.
You can also utilize the lock screen as your personal canvas by drawing directly on it; this way, you can add a note and pin a reminder to the Always On Display.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup is all about AI
Samsung's S24 series brings many features to its phone lineup. The integration of Galaxy AI adds several useful and helpful features, which anyone with a Galaxy 24 can get a free sample until the end of 2025. While we discussed several features above, one of the default apps the Galaxy S24 series comes with is the Samsung Gallery app. If you're interested in photo editing, the Samsung Gallery app has many great editing features that will make your photos look marvelous.
