Image-to-video Galaxy AI feature coming to Galaxy phones

One of the next AI tricks from Samsung for Galaxy smartphones and tablets could be a feature that turns still images into videos, according to a tipster on social media platform X. The tipster didn't provide any details, but this feature will likely take advantage of the AI video generation capabilities Google has built into Gemini.

Samsung and Google's partnership on the AI front is already quite substantial. Gemini is available as the default digital assistant on new Galaxy smartphones and a number of Galaxy AI features use Google's machine learning prowess. With One UI 7, Galaxy AI includes a function called Drawing Assist, which can convert sketches and drawings into art and also create images from text descriptions.

Chinese manufacturer Honor recently announced that the Gallery app on its new phones can convert images to videos and is powered by Google. Surprisingly, Honor is offering the feature before Google has implemented it in Gemini: Gemini users, those who buy the Gemini Advanced subscription, only get the option to have videos created based on text input at this time.

The Verge tested the new Honor phones and their video generation tool and came away with mixed results. While subjects like cats and cars were impressively rendered in motion despite having just a still image as reference, the type of motion it added didn't always make sense. The generation process also takes up to two minutes, and unlike Gemini Advanced, there is no option to create videos using text input.

Most importantly, there is also a limitation of 10 video generations per day, and Honor is only offering the feature for free for two months. We can see that being the case on Samsung devices as well, unless the Korean giant isn't using Google's AI model for its version of an image-to-video AI generator.

After all, Samsung has made it clear since day one that the Galaxy AI experience may not remain free forever, and functionality that Google isn't providing for free to anyone would be the right starting point for Samsung to introduce Galaxy AI subscriptions.

It's unclear when Samsung will debut its video generation feature. Early One UI 8 firmware we tested on various Galaxy smartphones don't include any new AI features, but it's possible Samsung is planning to unveil this and other new AI functionality with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7, its new foldables that are expected to launch in July.