Put on OS Weekly
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Samsung has massive issues in retailer for Samsung Well being this summer season, some official and a few leaked. However the clock is ticking on Samsung’s “free” AI options. And sooner or later, Galaxy Watch house owners could must ask themselves whether or not they’re prepared to pay for one of the best model of Samsung Well being.
It began final 12 months when Samsung revealed Galaxy AI and wearable insights like Vitality Rating and AI-based Wellness Ideas for the Watch 7. It promised on the time that its AI tips “can be supplied at no cost till the tip of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy units.”
On the January Unpacked, Samsung revealed a for much longer listing of AI-based health features coming this summer season: Vascular Load monitoring to find out every day “pressure in your coronary heart,” a “private well being coach” for LLM-based “insights” on your well being questions, an “antioxidant index” with “tailor-made meal plans and recipes,” and temper check-ins.
These are all confirmed options coming to One UI 8 Watch. And we are able to count on much more, based mostly on this recent leak a few Samsung “Operating Coach” that’ll have you ever run for 12 minutes to guage your health baseline after which construct a “customized coaching plan” for you.
Moreover, the One UI 8 beta launched meals log reminders and a “Collectively” function that challenges your folks to match your weekly working distance.
Till we hear in any other case, all of this must be free for Galaxy Watch 8 house owners. I have been ready for Samsung to pair its dual-band GPS accuracy with higher working steerage and an equal to the coaching load data that Garmin, Apple, and Fitbit provide. That is why the Operating Coach-Vascular Load combo sounds tantalizing.
My fear, although, is that that is all bait on the hook for an eventual Samsung subscription. I may simply see Samsung increase its stockpile of well being instruments earlier than making a Fitbit Premium or Google One AI equal very quickly.
Ready for the opposite shoe to drop
In a really perfect world, we might belief that Samsung merely desires to enhance its app to make it extra aggressive towards Apple Well being, as a boon for individuals who pay for its merchandise. However we reside in a world of shareholder calls for and tariff volatility.
In its recent earnings call, Samsung’s reps promised “distinctive tailor-made AI experiences for wearables” and “AI and well being capabilities” that can “strengthen product competitiveness and differentiation.”
They’re pushing Galaxy AI to make Galaxy Watches look futuristic and enhance gross sales, however the earnings name did not trace at subscriptions. No less than, not but.
We have seen two famously subscription-free watch manufacturers — Garmin and Polar — add their first mainline health subs in 2025 with Garmin Connect Plus and Polar Fitness Program. Garmin, particularly, held again on releasing new options in order that it may shove all of them into its subscription and mitigate revenue losses from tariffs.
I would guess Samsung is taking the reverse method: It desires to hook us with free Galaxy AI perks, then throw them behind a paywall and take care of the blowback then. In spite of everything, it did warn us it might cost for AI finally.
Maybe I am worrying over nothing, and we’ll nonetheless obtain free auto-generated diet plans, working plans, and the well being coach’s providers even after 2025. Nevertheless, Samsung will study its well being and AI rivals, which cost $10–20 monthly, and see that its prospects have few alternate options left to show to.
If Samsung begins to paywall even a few of these instruments in 2026, it will make the Samsung Well being expertise very totally different, nearer to the free, watered-down model of Fitbit.
Would you pay for a Samsung Well being subscription?
Perhaps this hypothesis is untimely. However after I noticed that rumor in regards to the Samsung Well being Operating Coach, precisely what I would been ready for, I needed to remind myself to look this reward horse within the mouth earlier than letting myself geek out. It is AI-generated, like the opposite new options.
I may see Samsung providing one total Galaxy AI plan for all of your units, much like the Google One AI Professional plan. Or else it may maintain the cellphone AI subscription separate from the Samsung Well being Coach subscription.
So let’s assume that Samsung Well being goes from a free app to a paywalled one someday subsequent 12 months. Are you excited sufficient by AI teaching, diet, and well being knowledge that you just’d pay for it after the free trial ended? Would you proceed utilizing Samsung Well being however ignore the AI tips totally? Or would a paywall push you to look elsewhere for a special health app?
