Put on OS Weekly
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Samsung has large issues in retailer for Samsung Well being this summer time, 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 should ask themselves whether or not they’re keen to pay for the perfect model of Samsung Well being.
It began final 12 months when Samsung revealed Galaxy AI and wearable insights like Power Rating and AI-based Wellness Suggestions for the Watch 7. It promised on the time that its AI methods “shall be supplied without spending a dime till the tip of 2025 on supported Samsung Galaxy gadgets.”
On the January Unpacked, Samsung revealed a for much longer checklist of AI-based well being options coming this summer time: Vascular Load monitoring to find out every day “pressure in your coronary heart,” a “private well being coach” for LLM-based “insights” in 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 anticipate much more, primarily based on this latest leak a few Samsung “Working 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 mates to match your weekly operating distance.
Till we hear in any other case, all of this ought to be free for Galaxy Watch 8 house owners. I have been ready for Samsung to pair its dual-band GPS accuracy with higher operating steerage and an equal to the coaching load information that Garmin, Apple, and Fitbit supply. That is why the Working 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 an excellent world, we would belief that Samsung merely desires to enhance its app to make it extra aggressive in opposition to Apple Well being, as a boon for individuals who pay for its merchandise. However we dwell in a world of shareholder calls for and tariff volatility.
In its latest earnings name, 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 increase 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 Join Plus and Polar Health 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 might 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 any case, it did warn us it might cost for AI ultimately.
Maybe I am worrying over nothing, and we’ll nonetheless obtain free auto-generated vitamin plans, operating plans, and the well being coach’s providers even after 2025. Nevertheless, Samsung will study its well being and AI opponents, which cost $10–20 monthly, and see that its clients have few 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 once I noticed that rumor in regards to the Samsung Well being Working Coach, precisely what I might 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 gadgets, just like the Google One AI Professional plan. Or else it may preserve the telephone 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, vitamin, and well being information that you just’d pay for it after the free trial ended? Would you proceed utilizing Samsung Well being however ignore the AI methods totally? Or would a paywall push you to look elsewhere for a special health app?
