Welcome to the Samsung and Apple confusion era; Google was here first

It was bound to happen. At some point, no matter how vertically integrated Apple is from hardware to software and no matter how committed Samsung is to equally delivering features to most of its flagship range, the two companies were bound to hit a wall that Google has repeatedly hit over the last decade or so: You just can’t keep rolling out every feature to everyone around the world immediately and forever.

This sad reality is slowly seeping its way through the Apple and Samsung ecosystems now. A year ago, if I watched a Samsung or Apple ad or press conference and I had a recent flagship phone (or watch, earbud, tablet, etc…), then odds were that this hot new feature was either already available to me or coming soon. The chance of missing out on something innovative and cool was quite slim.

Not anymore, though. No. Now, only some Galaxy phones get some Galaxy AI features in some languages. Some iPhones will get Apple Intelligence, but others won’t. And so on. The once clear, everything-for-everyone (or almost) strategy is no longer true. And we, Google and Pixel users, foresaw this years ago because this has been our reality for over a decade.

I spotted the first major sign of this shift when some of Samsung’s Galaxy AI features, like Live Translate, only showed support for 13 languages, so not everyone could get the same benefit out of them. Every buyer was equally paying top dollar for a Galaxy S24, but not everyone got the same value out of it. If you live in the Nordics, Africa, the Middle East, and many other areas where your native language isn’t supported, you can’t use this fancy new translation during phone calls.

The same goes for Writing Assist (or Chat Assist) in Samsung’s Keyboard, which helps you rewrite messages with different tones and translate foreign languages. It was limited to some languages, too.

Then, there was the One UI 6.1 update for the Galaxy S21, which brought some of the S24’s new nifty Galaxy AI features along with it, but not all. For the first time in a while, older Samsung phones like my Galaxy S21 Plus were getting the short end of the stick with important features, tainting the company’s nearly spotless recent update and availability record.

On the other side of the ecosystem divide, Apple started showing signs of cracks in its super tight update and support strategy when the fireworks of its Apple Intelligence settled on a dire reality: It’s only coming to the newest and best iPhones — the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max —  and only very recent Macs and iPads. Plus, it’s only launching in English, so all other languages will have to wait.

I’ve seen this same story time and again with Google and Pixel announcements. A nifty feature sounds too cool until I realize it is only available in the US, or only works in English, or is only rolling out to some recent Pixel phones.

Sometimes, I’m locked out by the location of my Google account, others by my IP address. Sometimes, I need to grab the APK of a new app version to unlock it; other times, it’s a server-side switch that Google flips when it darn well pleases. Sometimes, I need a specific Android version update, monthly patch, Play Services version, or Google Play System update. Sometimes, a feature that normally works for me stops when it detects that I’m roaming, even if I’m roaming in a country where it’s normally supported. (Looking at you, Pixel car crash detection!) It is absolute madness how many cogs exist in the Android + Google + Pixel wheels!

It’s also annoying when an amazing new capability rolls out to the great US of A, but not to similarly good/bad (depends on how you see it) first-world countries like France. It’s even more frustrating when a new feature comes to my shiny new Pixel 8 Pro but not my husband’s slightly older 7 Pro.

But I digress. The gist is that I’m familiar with this storyline. As a tech writer, I’ve written about it for over a decade, and I’ve complained about it for just as long. I can already tell you the full scenario: At first, it starts with a few minor and innocuous features here and there, and suddenly, it’s impossible for any normal user to understand what they’ll get when they purchase a phone. Will feature X work for them? How about Y? And will they get the same support as the next phone in line, or will they be abandoned for “hardware limitations” in a year’s time?

Google has written that script already. Samsung and Apple are just starting to follow it now.

To be clear, I’m not saying that Samsung or Apple have never dropped the ball on support before. Some Bixby features were limited to some languages, and some new iOS features never rolled out to the oldest supported iPhones — that’s a sad reality of tech’s short support cycles.

But in general, when someone in the last decade has asked me, “But why can’t I use this on my phone?” then they were probably talking about an Android, Google, or Pixel feature that didn’t show up for them for one reason or another. It was highly unlikely that that was a Samsung or Apple feature.

Soon enough, though, Samsung and Apple will have to join the fray. It’s already happened to me: My Galaxy S21 Plus doesn’t have the same Galaxy AI capabilities as my Galaxy S24 Ultra. And in a year or two, you might watch a Samsung or Apple ad and wonder, “Will I ever get this? Will it work here? Will it roll out to my phone?”

And the sad reality is that AI, and specifically generative AI, won’t make this any easier. The reliance on state-of-the-art hardware to compute and generate query answers already leaves any three-, two-, and even one-year-old phone out of the equation — the Pixel 8’s Gemini Nano support is a good example. So even if brands are promising five, six, and seven years of updates now, odds are that those will skip many new AI-centric features.

Regulatory requirements will also force companies to keep some countries (like the EU and its GDPR laws) forever behind the AI curve — I’ve already seen this with oft-delayed Gemini features in France. Plus, the need for extensive testing might restrict some features to English-only at launch. And so on.

We’re quickly approaching a very confusing and very expensive era in smartphones, specifically for die-hard enthusiasts. You’ll need to always be on the latest and greatest to even have a shot at accessing all the fancy new features. And after years of Samsung and Apple not being part of the problem, they’re finally joining in on this shared geeky frustration.