Samsung Bakes Google's Gemini Into Every New Galaxy Foldable and Watch

Samsung's summer Unpacked event delivered a full lineup of new foldables, a smartwatch, and a preview of smart glasses. The headline feature across all of it wasn't a new hinge or a better camera. It was Google's Gemini AI, wired directly into the hardware itself, according to ZDNET.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Watch 9, and Samsung's upcoming smart glasses all get native Gemini integration. This isn't a bolt-on chatbot app. Samsung and Google built it into the operating system layer.

Hard-Press the Power Button, Get an AI Assistant

On the Z Flip 8, users can summon Gemini Intelligence straight from the phone's outer Flex Window by hard-pressing the power button. No app hunting required.

Google says Gemini Intelligence can handle real digital tasks: buying concert tickets, ordering dinner, booking travel. The company claims compatibility with more than 40 apps, according to a Google blog post cited by ZDNET. But which apps, and when they'll actually work, remains unclear. Samsung and Google are selling a capability without a finished list of what it actually does yet.

Google says users still control the process. You can watch Gemini work through a task, pause it mid-stream, and confirm before anything gets finalized. In Google's own demo of the automation feature, a human still had to approve the final purchase before Gemini could complete an order. This is assisted automation, not a fully autonomous AI making purchases on your behalf without a checkpoint.

The Apple Comparison Google Would Rather You Not Make

Apple announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference last month that Siri will soon execute similar cross-app tasks. The difference: Apple's closed ecosystem lets Siri reach into a user's Messages, Photos, and Calendar across every device tied to the same iCloud account.

Samsung has not clarified whether it will give Gemini that same depth of access into a Galaxy user's personal data. Deep AI automation that can act on your behalf is only as trustworthy as the data permissions behind it, and neither Samsung nor Google has spelled out exactly what Gemini can see and touch on a Galaxy device versus what Siri can see on an iPhone.

Skeptics of AI assistants have been raising this question for two years: the more access you grant an AI to automate your life, the more you're trusting a third party with your messages, your calendar, your location history, and your purchase habits. Samsung and Google haven't published the technical documentation to settle that question yet.

Gemini Notebook Comes Preloaded

Samsung is also preinstalling Gemini Notebook, Google's rebranded research assistant formerly known as NotebookLM, on the Z Flip 8, Z Fold 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

The pitch here leans on the foldables' bigger screens. Samsung and Google demonstrated dragging and dropping links, photos, and documents between the Z Fold's side-by-side displays to make research and note-taking smoother across apps.

Smart Glasses Still a Tease, Not a Product

Samsung also teased more details on smart glasses built in partnership with Google and Qualcomm. This builds on Android XR, the platform Google detailed at its I/O developer conference in May. No release date or price for the glasses came out of Unpacked. It's a preview, not a launch.

What This Means for Samsung's Independence

Samsung is a hardware company betting its flagship product line on an AI stack it doesn't own. Every one of these Gemini features lives or dies on Google's infrastructure, Google's model updates, and Google's app partnerships. If Google changes Gemini's capabilities, pricing, or data policies, Samsung's phones change with it, whether Samsung likes it or not.

That's the tradeoff Samsung made instead of building a competing in-house AI model at Apple's scale. It gets Google's AI muscle immediately. It gives up control over the roadmap.

The open questions that matter for buyers: which of the promised 40-plus apps actually work with Gemini Intelligence at launch, what data Gemini can access on a Galaxy device compared to what Siri will access on iPhone, and whether Samsung publishes a clear breakdown of that before the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 ship to customers.