Google and Samsung are facing a major test to their foldable phone supremacy this year with the upcoming iPhone Fold. The Apple device's very existence has forced rivals into getting ahead of it with their own wider designs. For Samsung and Google, they're betting a major free Android update will be the difference between the devices.
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The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold will likely have the same aspect ratio as the Apple iPhone Fold and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Android 17 lands this summer on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide and the Google Pixel 11 range. With it comes several new heavyweight AI tools and features, which all fall under the freshly crowned Gemini Intelligence brand, which has new agentic capabilities.
In essence that means the AI can complete tasks on your behalf with minimal input. That is seemingly baked deeply into the Android 17 experience and, looking at what was announced, I can see how the new foldable phones will feel the benefit of the new skills. Check out the demo below.
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The headline feature is multi-step automation. It can find your class syllabus in Gmail and add the required books to your shopping cart, book your gym session, or build a groceries delivery order from your notes app.
Create My Widget lets you generate a custom home screen widget by describing what you want from a countdown timer, to a weekly meal suggestion, or a live package tracker.
The combination of Android’s deep customisation options, now accessible via simple prompts, and the multitasking abilities of a foldable phone is a marriage made in heaven. Foldable phones are for power users because of side-by-side app multitasking. Power users like them because they can get more done on a small screen. Gemini Intelligence is the next step of that, handing off tasks to the agent, while running two other apps at once the large screen.
Of course we’ll have to see how well that all work. We know about AI’s quirks when it comes to accuracy. But this is a very serious feature upgrade for the new Android phones, and even more so for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which will go head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone Fold this year. While the two phones may look similar, the actual user experience could be wildly different.
WWDC kicks off on June 8th and will give us a clearer picture of Apple’s AI vision. Is it playing catch up with Android after promising advanced Siri features that never arrived (and resulted in a $250m lawsuit settlement) or will it go down a different path, focusing on privacy and providing an alternative to the level of personal data Gemini Intelligence requires?
Based on the reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it looks like both. iOS 27 will let users choose third-party AI models to power image and text generation. There's a meaningful difference between choosing which AI model answers your questions and giving that model the deep cross-app access Gemini Intelligence needs to actually complete tasks. I'm not sure Apple will go that far.
There will be clear daylight between these devices at launch. That could be valuable in either direction in a market where very little else separates premium smartphones.
Samsung and Google clearly believe people will happily let AI book flights, hotels and restaurants with minimal oversight, pulling personal information from across your apps to fill in complex forms. Google even gave the example of Gemini digging through Google Photos to find a passport photo for a flight booking.
That’s genuinely useful. It’s also a bit scary. Gemini needs to be all-seeing on your Android phone to work seamlessly, and not everyone will be comfortable with that. If they’re not, maybe Apple will tempt them over with a less invasive AI toolset.
There’s also Google and Samsung’s years of experience with the foldable UI (every first-generation foldable I’ve used has had teething pains), which may give the Android devices a clear early advantage. Don’t be surprised if Samsung and Google’s marketing leans heavily on Apple’s inexperience and this AI gap when all three phones are finally on sale. Equally, if Apple doesn’t bake agentic AI deeply into iOS 27, that might be a serious pull for more privacy conscious foldable phone buyers.
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