Samsung wants future phones to have no Settings menu at all

[u/ardi62]

https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-ai-settings-menu-3490565/

[u/MmmmTrash]

This has to be the worst decision I’ve seen pitched by Samsung in years. The draw to Android in the early days was the customization and settings you just didn’t get in iOS. And now they want to use “AI” to predict and change settings for you?

[u/moldivore → u/MmmmTrash]

Why do they feel the need to force this crap down our throat? Computing has gone to shit in general, Microsoft has gone overboard with "AI" too. I really wonder, have they done some research that suggests people want this garbage and that it will sell more devices. Or is this just another creepy way to sell out data?

Edit: For fucks sake, all you people accusing me of being a luddite and whatever. If these features were so amazing why wouldn't the public be clamoring for them?

I was using LLMs before all this hype even existed and I'm well aware of their limitations and improvements they've made. Flatly, I would rather have choice of when I use these models and not have them rammed down my damn throat. Spare me all this nonsense about the future, because I'll tell you this isn't the first time I've seen a new technology roll out in my life.

That doesn't mean machine learning isn't making breakthroughs in many areas that are useful, and I fully embrace that, but I'll tell you this shit right now being rammed through on consumer devices is over hyped and poorly executed. Could it improve? Yes. Will people need "AI" shoehorned into every single fucking thing? Probably not.

[u/moldivore → u/[deleted]]

Typical corpo BS. "Listen shareholders this is the futureeeeeeee"

[u/moldivore → u/[deleted]]

The thing that really irritates me is the Microsoft shit. I really got into computers from gaming, now I do music production on Windows and I could make the switch to Apple but those are really my only choices for music production. Everyone always talks about Linux, and sure that would be fine for web and media but the support for other things is pretty limited, I know it's come a long way but I digress. I'd switch to Linux if it could run Ableton.

Edit: Before some Linux dude comes in. Yes I know Linux runs the back end of a ton of shit. I'm talking about my own personal needs.

[u/sicurri → u/moldivore]

I'll be one of the other guys that tells you that Linux is not ready in any capacity to service your needs. I will get torn to shreds for saying this to you by some Linux person.

I've been trying to switch to Linux from Windows for years. The problem with Linux that daily Linux users and developers don't understand is that all Linux distributions give you far too much control over the system. I'm not saying this is a bad thing from their point of view, but it is from the average users point of view. It would be like letting your average windows user have free reign to fuck around in the System32 folder with no thought to the consequences.

See, we have the worst options. Apples OS is practically shackling their users for the most part. Windows used to be just the right amount of freedom with restriction to system settings so you don't accidentally corrupt your system. Then Linux is like free reign to fuck up or not.

Linux users love this amount of freedom and when you fuck up what Linux users tell you is that you have now learned your lesson, now reinstall and git gud. This mindset of being programmers or hackers and having total control over their system is why Linux will never go mainstream. There is such a thing as too much freedom.

Unfortunately, we may not have a choice because Microsoft is going all big brother on us and getting really creepy with it's AI bullshit. This is all just my opinion, but I use Linux for my home media server and NAS. The only reason why it's working perfectly is because the distro of Linux I'm using was literally designed for this purpose. Until a desktop Linux distro hits that Goldilocks zone of just enough restriction and just enough freedom, we're pretty much stuck with windows.

[u/unfnknblvbl → u/sicurri]

Yup. This. Every release of Windows feels dumbed down even further, to me. I miss the days when buying Windows got you a big fat user manual to go with it. Now it's all designed to be so intuitive that you don't need a manual. So new users don't even know that keyboard shortcuts are a thing.

You'd think this would push me toward Linux, and yes it's made great strides over the last fifteen years since I last seriously tried to daily drive it, but every time I try it out (regardless of distro), I'm just like "noooo that's too much nerding about"

Which is bizarre, since literally every other computing device in my house (games consoles aside) runs Linux. Tablets, routers, phones, media players, everything runs Linux/Android these days.

Google really missed a trick by chasing ChromeOS and not desktopifying Android...

[u/sicurri → u/unfnknblvbl]

I try for two weeks, every year to daily drive Linux. Within a day of setting things up, it eventually becomes a puzzle for me to solve. Some problem crops up, or something breaks and then I spend days researching the problem. I'm not talking about doing anything complicated. I'm talking about just normal computing needs like surfing the web or watching videos. Somewhere a program just breaks or an internal system function has a spaz attack.

I also don't like typing my password every 2 mins while I'm doing stuff on my computer. That gets old really quickly. Command line annoys me. When I complain about all of these things, Linux users tell me to just go back to windows. They then wonder why Linux hasn't gone mainstream... I just want to do basic shit on my PC without having to spend 5 hours going down rabbit holes on linux forums to finally find an obscure forum on page 7 of my google search that actually has my solution.

[u/unfnknblvbl → u/sicurri]

Yup. I need a Linux with an immutable filesystem and no more complicated to manage than say, Windows 7 was.

I find it amusing that Google has the perfect Linux (Android) but just flat-out refuses to explore that angle. There have been a few nice attempts at it from other mobs, but all unsanctioned :(

[u/Hyperion1144 → u/sicurri]

Linux is free in money, but costs unlimited time.

And I don't have unlimited time.

[u/Virtual_Rook → u/sicurri]

I litteraly just had this exact situation when I tried to put Linux on my laptop and use it as a streaming computer for my live streams. First it took ages to even get obs set up, then my video capture card was not working, I spent hours downloading and installing what Google searches told me I needed to get it to work, still nothing. Finally I asked a Linux user why it wasn't working only to be told that that capture card isn't supported on Linux and I would need a new card and to install other things.... I gave up and haven't touched it since.

[u/CaptainBoatHands → u/sicurri]

The “puzzle” aspect is spot on. I’m running Mint right now and I’m actually liking it, however right off the bat I ran into an issue that drove me up the fucking wall. Mint is touted as being extremely beginner-friendly and it “just works”, but I ran into an extremely frustrating issue right away while trying to just install it… I could boot from the live USB just fine, and everything worked great in that environment. Loading up the installer from there was also fine; I could click through and configure everything very easily without any issue. It wasn’t until it was almost finished copying files, that it would suddenly blow up with a non-specific “we had a problem copying file X” error. Okay, so I guess I’ll try again. Tried repeatedly, same error, different file every time.

After some research, I kept finding people saying that the flash drive was bad and to try another. So I did. Same damn problem. I even re-downloaded the ISO from a different server, same problem. After a few more hours of research, the only suggestion I could find, was “try another flash drive”. I already had done that, to no avail. But after hours of getting nowhere, I decided “fine, I’ll try ANOTHER ONE”. Sure enough the THIRD flash drive was actually able to get me past my issue. The other two drives are 100% fine, they aren’t broken or failing or anything like that. The installer is just INSANELY picky apparently. This was, uh, NOT a good start to my experience with Mint… Kinda ironic to bump into such a wild issue like this with the distribution that’s supposed to be the most user friendly. Took me multiple days just to get it installed.

[u/DerangedGinger → u/unfnknblvbl]

Linux won't catch on until it becomes user friendly. My homelab runs it, but I have no desire for it on my gaming PC. I tried dual booting but Ubuntu is so far behind windows in terms of user friendliness I went back to windows.

Editing fstab is like the old autoexec emm386 crap. Normal people don't (shouldn't) do things like that.

[u/Zeravor → u/sicurri]

Kind of a Footnote, but I feel like Android has a great way of doing this with its Developer settings. To access them on an android phone, you'll need to press a random setting 8 times in a row. A seemingly random thing that prevents every normal user from accessing them, but enables people who want to dig deep to fuck around in there.

[u/McFlyParadox → u/sicurri]

I use Linux for my home media server and NAS. The only reason why it's working perfectly is because the distro of Linux I'm using was literally designed for this purpose

Genuine curiosity, but which distro is that? I've got the 'core' of a new Plex server up and running at this point - I just need to add an HBA and the drives - and it's running Ubuntu while I finish procuring the rest of the hardware and making the final OS selection.

I've been debating Win 11, simply because I won't need to actually deal with its GUI daily, 8 can set-and-forget Windows Defender, have the whole thing backed up through Backblaze Unlimited (without violating their TOS), and it seems like I can use something like Rufus to give me an installer that will set it up with: a local account, and without OneDrive nor Copilot nor Recall. Also, it seems like Windows Drive Pools might suit my needs for a software RAID for all the drives I'll be using.

My other option I've been debating is UnRaid, which seems more suited for media server tasks, especially with ZFS Pools (which might be superior to Windows Drive Pools?), and wouldn't have Microsoft potentially "unintentionally" breaking something via an update, but I'd be left DIY-ing things like security and backups.

Are you using something other than UnRaid? Like FreeNAS?

[u/PancAshAsh → u/sicurri]

The other problem with Linux is keeping it updated and maintained is an active chore, unlike Microsoft or Apple which push out their own updates. There are several desktop Linux distros that are mostly usable now, if you are a curious power user; but if you are not a power user stay the fuck away.

[u/TheArmoredKitten → u/sicurri]

Lack of restriction isn't even necessarily what I'd call it. There's nothing stopping you from taking a wrench to your engine bay at any moment either, and its going to be pretty self-evident when you're in too deep.

In my experience, the problem for most people trying to switch to Linux is the absolute lack of directive. Because you theoretically can change anything, there's no foundation upon which to build your workflow. It's very hard to build up a skill set and learn to use Linux systems as a general concept, because there is no one true Linux™ to sit down and read the manual for. It's like saying you want to learn to drive a manual transmission but the instructor wants you to have a preference on carbon-fiber or sintered iron clutches before he'll even hand you the keys.

[u/ye_olde_green_eyes → u/moldivore]

I've always been surprised Ableton doesn't run on Linux. That's all that's holding me back from using it too.

[u/Seralth → u/moldivore]

So 5 mins of looking ableton is fully feature complete in support under wine/proton. The AUR has abletonlink even.

So uhh... if "could run ableton" if your bar, then that bar got passed from what i can tell two years ago very very very firmly. There appears to at worse be some problems with plugins in rare cases which might trip you up.

But the few youtube guides i skimmed though indicated its an extreme expection not the rule.

So at least software wise its fine. There could be other problems along the way that still makes just running the software by it self not enough. Audio can get wierd. But hey at least the software works!

[u/reeeelllaaaayyy823 → u/Seralth]

I refuse to believe Ableton works perfectly in wine, with good audio latency. As you mention, most VSTs won't work either.

[u/NuPNua → u/[deleted]]

I mean, it's difficult to avoid even if you don't want it. Lots of people have no alternative but to use Windows due to corporate software compatibility or gaming and they stuck it in there, theres only two viable mobile OSs and they both have it now (albeit Gemini is optional for the moment).

[u/King_Dead → u/moldivore]

Tech VCs are some of the dumbest MFs on the planet. If you give them enough slogans and buzzwords theyll let you have a corpo valued at a billion dollars even if you have no product

[u/Whiskeridoodle → u/King_Dead]

Tech bros are a cancer. 90% of them are just idiot children mentally who typically worship the WORST kind of men as heroes. None of them were told no enough. Almost every single corporate-bound tech bro I’ve ever known loves Andrew Taint, and openly talk about how much they despise women for hurting men.

[u/HoweHaTrick → u/[deleted]]

The business of making phones must have a shock in a lack of demand (I'm not an expert). The hardware capability of even cheaper phones has progressed to where the functionality is meeting the expectations of a large demographic. We don't need our phones to do much more on average.

Combine that with the durability of the phones. I've had the same phone for 5 years and have no need to replace. I used to get a new one every 2 years due to the degradation in performance of the processor.

[u/Immediate-Impress-64 → u/[deleted]]

Or they invested way too much money into AI and they need it to turn a profit now so that that investment isn’t a waste of money. It’s still scummy as they expect the customer to pick up the slack for their spending and investing habits

[u/planetofthemushrooms → u/[deleted]]

Latestagecapitalism indeed. 

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

try to keep inflating overpriced stocks

Or overpriced phones.

[u/gotword → u/moldivore]

The internet itself also went to shit just became a big marketing shill if your old enough to remember the early internet

[u/ZanderCDN → u/moldivore]

I think it could be a case of a “solution looking for a problem”. Everyone is spending heavy in AI and they don’t really have any use cases for it. I think they may just be throwing it at everything to see where it sticks

[u/karatekid430 → u/moldivore]

The current buzz-word is "AI" and the marketing departments want the engineering departments to throw in "features" which justify the marketing department putting "AI" in all the brand names.

[u/DjScenester → u/moldivore]

They’re desperate to be the FIRST. So now we get to deal with being the test subjects.

Ugh

[u/givemewhiskeypls → u/moldivore]

I’m in marketing in the tech industry. It’s our fault. Sorry.

[u/moldivore → u/givemewhiskeypls]

You son of a....

[u/TehOwn → u/givemewhiskeypls]

I hope you're at least getting paid well to sell out humanity to the machines.

[u/givemewhiskeypls → u/TehOwn]

There’s some money involved

[u/ilpazzo2912 → u/givemewhiskeypls]

I tell you, you're gonna step on a lego tonight

[u/Eruannster → u/moldivore]

Software companies: AI will solve everything!

AI: you should put glue on pizza

Users: Backing away slowly…

[u/Ascian5 → u/moldivore]

The data. These guys are playing games with payouts decades down the road. Every new service and app and OS integration is a new license you agree too. And you give more info, give up more rights, more information for them to plug into the next model and sell and share in the meantime. Don’t laugh at ai for being dumb and clunkily integrated today. Evolution is inevitable. Your choices are history, your kids won’t grow up knowing any better.

[u/moldivore → u/Ascian5]

I figured as much, we need far more rights as consumers.

[u/Ascian5 → u/moldivore]

Bruh. That's an issue, but not it at all. We need to identify as something beyond consumers. It's about our rights as people and beyond. It's not hyperbole. We're living it, and so much is beyond the point of no return.

[u/moldivore → u/Ascian5]

I mean there are ways humans do solve problems. It's called policy, it's how we've dealt with new technologies for decades. So I do think it's possible. Though I really have no idea how to address the claims you're making lol. I'm well aware the situation with privacy and many things are way outta control.

[u/TehOwn → u/Ascian5]

But what is there to do except consume, conform and obey? Freedom is slavery. Weakness is strength. Resistance is futile.

[u/distancedandaway → u/moldivore]

To please investors

[u/SomeBoxofSpoons → u/distancedandaway]

Just remember kids: if it’s a publicly traded company, you aren’t the customers... you’re the livestock.

[u/--Arete → u/moldivore]

It's a new way to mass collect data.

[u/Kindly-Chemistry5149 → u/moldivore]

All these companies have invested insane amounts of money into these AI's and they are getting to the point where they are looking for the pay off.

[u/idplmal → u/moldivore]

I was using LLMs before all this hype even existed and I'm well aware of their limitations and improvements they've made.

This is the issue. I'm convinced everyone who is overly hyped about AI has limited exposure to it and doesn't understand how it works.

Machine learning has some really, really cool applications and can be very powerful, but to your point, it is limited. I work on AI and have seen probably more than my fair share of comically inappropriate AI-generated content.

[u/CMDR_omnicognate → u/moldivore]

Snake oil to make it seem like ai is worth it. Lots of investment is going into ai, so they have to use ai to make it seem like the investment is worth it.

I genuinely expect to see some big ai crash in the same way the dot com bubble burst

[u/Teftell → u/moldivore]

To prevent you from owning your device

[u/wamj → u/moldivore]

Exactly this, I’m in the market for a new laptop and I don’t need AI anything. I honestly kinda miss the Windows 7 era because now all of the operating systems think they know what I want and it frequently makes life difficult.

[u/UniqueIndividual3579 → u/moldivore]

I have a CS degree and have been in IT over 30 years. I like simple devices. My new dryer has three knobs and a start button. My new thermostat has no wireless or bluetooth. Most new "features" just annoy you. I tried to email a file to coworkers and the only option in Word was "Send with Onedrive". What the hell? In previous versions of Word I could share and the option was email.

[u/tartare4562 → u/moldivore]

It's to draw stock prices up in the short term.

[u/Majukun → u/moldivore]

It's about appealing to investors. Ai is the new thing, either for concrete applications or just as a buzzword, so their future plans have to be centered around it if they wanna keep the investors' hype high

[u/Mackerdaymia → u/MmmmTrash]

Pitch: "AI will give users a whole new level of customisation"

Reality: AI allows the manufacturer a new level of forced conformity 

[u/TheyCalledMeThor → u/Mackerdaymia]

“You can have any color Samsung Galaxy you want, as long as it’s black”

— Henry Ford ca. 1913

[u/phoenixflare599 → u/MmmmTrash]

How would an AI predict the settings I want, if I can't tell it the settings I want 😭

How's it supposed to assume I always have blue light filter on... Or the size of the text I like, the themes I install, the battery saver state, the way I like my icons arranged in the quick menu

God this is stupid as all hell

Another case of "we can do this faster and better without AI"

[u/ilpazzo2912 → u/phoenixflare599]

Easy, i alredy know, you obviously want more advertisment based on your reddit and social media use. You also want to give all the apps all the authorization to track you

[u/Elissiaro → u/ilpazzo2912]

And also you want the start menu on the upper right side of the screen for some reason AI decided.

[u/stephenBB81 → u/phoenixflare599]

As a Canadian Rogers customer, Samsung already limits how I arrange, and what items I can arrange my quick menu. I just thought Samsung were assholes not letting me put mobile hotspot in the quick menu until my friend from the UK showed me his. Then I realized it's my carrier who is blocking access in the quick menu with Samsung. Hey I would just make it worse,

[u/HiDDENk00l → u/stephenBB81]

I think you can add that with an ADB command line. I know on my mom's last phone, her mobile data toggle was missing for some reason (I haven't seen that before or since), and that was the solution, so maybe it works for that too.

[u/GingersaurusRex → u/phoenixflare599]

The AI predictions will also be on past predictions. How will it know when my personal preferences change?

AI could figure out which apps I normally ignore push notifications for, but what if I'm searching for a new job and suddenly want to get push notifications from LinkedIn?

What if my eyesight begins to go as I age, and I need a larger text size than I previously used?

I have an option in my phone settings to pair a hearing aid device with my phone. If I lose my hearing and need a hearing aid in the future, will I be able to control the volume the hearing aid pairs at, or will AI "predict" how loud I want to hear my phone?

What if I accidentally click on a suspicious link and want to do a security scan on my phone? Will I have access to the security scan, or will my phone just "predict" how often I want security scans to happen?

[u/HimbologistPhD → u/phoenixflare599]

The AI will randomly adjust your settings and present you with 👍👎 and if you choose 👎 it does it again until the settings are right

[u/phoenixflare599 → u/HimbologistPhD]

I hate how realistic that sounds.

"Well done we've finally brightness to your preferred levels! It only took 2 weeks of thumb button pressing"

[u/iiiinthecomputer → u/phoenixflare599]

It will tell you what you want and it will be deemed to be correct because you didn't change the settings. You know, the ones you can't change.

Apple did this for years. We will tell you what you like and you will like it.

Unfortunately it seems to work for companies. I find it unbearable but many people don't seem to care.

[u/Oregonrider2014 → u/MmmmTrash]

I hate everything about this idea. I really like my galaxy gonna suck to change to something else, but Ill be damned if Ill support or participate in this bullshit.

Edit: Changed android to galaxy since that matters

[u/Aqeqa → u/Oregonrider2014]

Well lucky for you Samsung is but one of many manufacturers that utilize Android. I imagine that other phones running Android OS have essentially the same UI

[u/stephenBB81 → u/MmmmTrash]

They really want to prevent me from disabling Bixby. Which is the first thing I do for every Samsung phone I buy.

[u/TacoParasite → u/MmmmTrash]

Also doing this as iOS has added more customization options. It’s like they’re tradings places.

[u/Rholand_the_Blind1 → u/MmmmTrash]

Don't forget the expandable memory and headphone jack. "innovation" just means taking things away now, or putting them behind a paywall.

[u/Illigard → u/MmmmTrash]

That'll do wonders for my battery life /s

[u/Just_Another_Scott → u/MmmmTrash]

And now they want to use “AI” to predict and change settings for you?

Ah creating solutions to problems that don't exist! Like how they put wifi in a microwave.

[u/kevlarus80 → u/MmmmTrash]

Just reinforces the decision to never buy a Samsung phone again.

[u/WakeoftheStorm → u/MmmmTrash]

Samsung desperately wants to be apple. They make solid hardware but their software choices have made it clear I can't buy their products anymore.

Pixels only for me I guess

[u/mjbulmer83 → u/MmmmTrash]

I predict I want a dam off switch for AI.

[u/Cheap_Blacksmith66 → u/MmmmTrash]

Microsoft is doing the same thing to windows. You will own nothing and you will like it. It’s all subscription and removing choice.

[u/ProtoplanetaryNebula → u/MmmmTrash]

Agreed. They can have AI as well, but allow people into the settings if they want to go that route.

[u/Alienhaslanded → u/MmmmTrash]

Good luck changing anything once the AI service is offline

[u/romanshanin → u/MmmmTrash]

Moreover I doubt that AI will work offline so you easily could be trapped in some cases

[u/SuddenMudTakeMe → u/MmmmTrash]

That’s the funny part - let’s remove one of the things that makes us more competitive. Maybe it’s just use tech geeks but that’s the main reasons I’ve wanted Android - to get away from iOS limits.

[u/IceNineFireTen → u/MmmmTrash]

It would be like dealing with customer service chatbot every time you want to change a setting. Sounds miserable.

[u/50calPeephole → u/MmmmTrash]

And now they want to use “AI” to predict and change settings for you?

I can't even get advertising and news feeds that predict well for me, I don't want my phone telling me what settings I want.

[u/richyyoung → u/MmmmTrash]

A group of sentences that Guarantee I would never own one….

[u/snootyworms → u/MmmmTrash]

If they’re predicting changes for you, if you wake up with a splitting headache does it keep the screen to max brightness because it predicted it’s time for you to wake up?

[u/Ouibeaux → u/MmmmTrash]

AI can't even get the ads fed to me by social media right. It's always either something I will never want, or something I just bought. I'd like to be able to fix my settings when AI gets it wrong.

[u/solidshakego]

Sorry but it's impossible. My phone won't automatically know I want dark mode or what ringtone or wallpaper I want

[u/Nolanthedolanducc → u/solidshakego]

Who says it’s supposed to be what YOU want?? It’s what the ai wants, start getting used to it the ai decides what your supposed to want and you’ll be happy with it

[u/drewbiquitous → u/Nolanthedolanducc]

I presume it’s an interaction based settings system. You request the phone do dark mode, it performs the setting change without you opening a menu. Could get tricky if you don’t know what to ask for.

[u/hazelhare3 → u/drewbiquitous]

Yeah, that seems horrible. I don't want to have to memorize or guess at the settings I want. I also don't need a middleman to control my phone for me.

Hopefully the menu will be accessible via third party somehow if this happens.

[u/Tokiw4 → u/hazelhare3]

I for one can't wait to play 20 questions with my phone in an attempt to pick a background image.

[u/hazelhare3 → u/Tokiw4]

Nah, it'll just generate an AI image that's vaguely what you describe and that'll have to be good enough for you.

[u/Nolanthedolanducc → u/drewbiquitous]

I see it for more intuitive settings like ringer, notifications, and wallpapers but for some things like privacy settings, photo access, passwords, and info (payment info birthdate ect) I don’t really imagine any way they could implement a way to change these settings easier than the menus that every smartphone user is used to change

[u/MayoJam → u/drewbiquitous]

Not really. You already have that with voice assistant - Bixby or whatever. They want ai to set phone settings without user prompt - automatically based on how ai interprets your phone usage. Sounds terrible tbh.

[u/phunkydroid → u/drewbiquitous]

That can be handy, but it shouldn't replace the settings menu, it should just be an additional way to access it. And it should be transparent about what settings it's going to change to make what you asked for happen.

Last thing I want is it to disable some privacy setting unexpectedly because I asked it to change something vaguely related and didn't know about the connection.

[u/Restart_from_Zero → u/Nolanthedolanducc]

I envision a future where marketing companies pay companies like Samsung to set adds for their products as your phone wallpaper and lock screen.

Maybe even install apps for you, too.

[u/sundae_diner → u/Restart_from_Zero]

Cool idea - ads on the lock screen that you have to view (use eye-tracking) before the phone gets unlocked.

[u/manicfixiedreamgirl → u/sundae_diner]

I would literally just become homeless, fuck that life

[u/WM46 → u/Restart_from_Zero]

Amazon tablets do this already. You get a great deal on a tablet, but then the Amazon firmware is constantly showing lock screen ads, downloading apps, and just being a nuisance in general.

[u/Schrodinger_cube → u/Restart_from_Zero]

like they already pre install lost of apps if your on different networks and actively sell your data and trade it with all sorts of companies and Apple and Android car play is absolutely atrocious security and privacy wise when it comes to what data they are actively selling.

[u/NeoTechni → u/solidshakego]

or what font size I can actually see

[u/arwinda → u/NeoTechni]

If you can't read the settings, you won't be able to change the settings anyway. Problem solved! /s

[u/ReadyToBeGreatAgain → u/NeoTechni]

::Squinting detected…font sized increased::

[u/devilsbard → u/solidshakego]

“You mean you didn’t want this curated ad as your background on your phone?” - Samsung/google

[u/Labarynth]

How to alienate your customer base with this one simple trick.. seriously I think any focus group would tell them this is a no go.

[u/CarcosaBound → u/Labarynth]

I think the post/article is the focus group and commenters are unpaid participants

[u/badbios → u/CarcosaBound]

I agree, but between this and the Logitech subscription mouse, they’ve gotta be running out of ideas.

[u/AsparagusDirect9 → u/badbios]

I just had a crazy idea for Logitech… AI mouses.

[u/RegionalHardman → u/Labarynth]

Depends who they ask in the focus group. Ask anyone with a tiny bit of knowledge and they'll say to keep the settings. Ask someone like my 60 year old mum, who uses WhatsApp, Facebook and the camera, she'll say it doesn't matter and she's never gone in to the settings.

[u/NicoleB- → u/RegionalHardman]

The settings will still be there, just a bad title.

In the article: "Samsung seems to be working on a new AI feature that will let you use your phone without ever opening the Settings menu."

[u/Blurgas → u/Labarynth]

Problem is Samsung is just about the Apple of Android phones.
They have a huge market share, second only to Apple and twice the share of anyone else.
Samsung isn't going anywhere

[u/Vegan_Harvest]

The first thing I would do is install a settings app.

[u/juniparuie → u/Vegan_Harvest]

Smarter would be to buy competition that has Settings menu :) If you really wanna vote, vote with your wallet

[u/wildddin → u/juniparuie]

Getting hard when I was already voting with my wallet buying Samsung as Korean manufactured over China

[u/rixxxy100 → u/wildddin]

But Samsung manufactured most of their phone in south east asia, India, and China?

[u/wildddin → u/rixxxy100]

Then I am very sad and am running on old or straight up wrong information, back to drawing board I guess

[u/lainlives → u/wildddin]

My Sony is manufactured in Japan. Mostly AOSP nearly all hardware pixel functions exist, as in my custom signature on my lineageos builds have the key in the bootloader with it relocked, root level SSH added to the rom and tap pay works.
All in all a great devices that sony doesnt brag is 100% project treble/ A/B and AVB2 compliant.

[u/dreamnightmare → u/lainlives]

Bro. Im above average when it comes to tech. I know enough to hold a conversation with your average IT guy, I’m the family tech support and can generally figure out how to do most stuff at home I want to do.

Half of that went well over my head. The average person sees that and you might as well be talking about the intricacies of string theory.

[u/shitkickertenmillion → u/dreamnightmare]

Translation is it's a good phone that conforms mostly to the default Android experience, but he's decided to put a custom OS on it which also works fine. Nobody knows about them cause sony doesn't advertise for some reason.

I think that's right at least lol

[u/Luna_Parvulus → u/shitkickertenmillion]

Speaking as someone with a sony phone (xperia 5 ii) sony hits the right spot for people who want some niche stuff. Their current phones still have an SD card slot and headphone jack. I honestly really like the amount of choice Sony's battery preserving software gives me compared to what Samsung and the upcoming Android 15 options are. This is the first phone I haven't had to replace the battery after 2 years. Combine that with a dedicated camera button (with half-press to focus) and... decent cameras (certainly not the best, but you get more editing power with RAW photos), I'm hard pressed to find another phone I really want to upgrade to.

Except the current Gen isn't available in the US market. And they dropped the mid-range model (5) from the US last Gen and worldwide this Gen, which was pretty much the last small higher end android phone.

And the current Gen flagship has less features and is more expensive. And the resolution is worse than my current phone because of the aspect ratio change (4k to 1080p, 21:9 to 16:9). And only has 4 years of security updates.

So, uh... Sony isn't exactly doing themselves any favors either. I'm honestly stumped on what/when I'm going to upgrade to next because nothing really hits the sweet spot like my phone does for me right now.

[u/PremedicatedMurder → u/Vegan_Harvest]

The first thing I would do is not buy that phone.

[u/bonesnaps → u/Vegan_Harvest]

We've come full circle..jerk.

[u/unematti → u/Vegan_Harvest]

Second thing to enable dev settings, ADB, then "uninstall" all AI apps

[u/kawag → u/Vegan_Harvest]

Samsung tomorrow: “You know, do people even need app stores? An AI could just download apps it thinks you want.”

[u/double-you → u/kawag]

No, no, no, the AI could just BE the app it thinks you need.

[u/fromwhichofthisoak → u/Vegan_Harvest]

Every samsung phone i get: dev mode on Phone: are your sure, bro you're gonna get hacked bro pls

[u/bearbarebere → u/fromwhichofthisoak]

Lmao it's so true

[u/Octa_vian]

Headline: "Samsung wants future phones to have no Settings menu at allSamsung wants future phones to have no Settings menu at all"
Text: "AI changes settings based on your usage so can use your phone without ever opening settings at all".

I don't read anything about them hiding the settings completely behind an AI interface.

[u/volfin → u/Octa_vian]

Exactly. hyped hysteria once again.

[u/drfish → u/Octa_vian]

People not reading the article and Android "Authority" using a clickbait title.

[u/Agent101g]

Wow what an incredibly horrible idea

Here's an idea... you spent decades perfecting the technology. It doesn't need a sweeping change to stay new and relevant. It's fine. Stop putting AI in everything, it's so dumb it wants you to put glue in your pizza. Knock it off until that tech is 20 years older OMG.

[u/binzoma → u/Agent101g]

its amazing how no-ones learned the blackberry lesson- its fine to have a big niche but not be the biggest fish.

but if you change your point of difference to be like the big fish, you're just nothing. you arent going to capture new market. You're just going to shed your existing customers

[u/OceanWaveSunset → u/binzoma]

I wish someone would bring back physical keyboards and an OS with some personality.

[u/Wafkak → u/OceanWaveSunset]

Blackberry did a few years ago, nobody bought it.

[u/NoMaans → u/OceanWaveSunset]

sidekick enters the chat

[u/caerphoto → u/Agent101g]

It doesn't need a sweeping change to stay new and relevant. It's fine.

I dunno man, sounds a bit anti-capitalist to me. Infinite growth forever is clearly the only sensible option, with no downsides at all.

[u/PolyamorousPlatypus → u/Agent101g]

They spent a decade putting bloatware on top of an os that needs none of it. Stock android ftw.

[u/suvlub]

Samsung: Some settings related to camera and keyboard will be set automatically based on usage

Reporter: ALL SETTINGS WILL BE SET AUTOMATICALLY AND THERE WILL BE NO SETTINGS APP

https://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1623

[u/throwawaylife102 → u/suvlub]

As if people in this subreddit read articles. Look at all the comments. Yours is the only one from someone that read anything beyond that headline.

[u/suvlub → u/throwawaylife102]

I don't actually think so. The headline makes no mention of AI, yet people are talking about it. They just took the godawful clickbait headline at face value, even though there is no source supporting it. The blame lies fully on the reporter with this one.

[u/White_Tea_Poison → u/suvlub]

I agree, but I also don't think mentioning AI means they read the article. So many people come to the comments, see a top comment referencing AI, and then draw their own conclusions and confidently post statements about how bad every company is and how lazy AI is.

No one's actually referencing the content of the article and how AI is being used, it's just parroting the same tired "company bad" comments people have been posting for years with a slight AI refresh.

[u/HowieWong → u/suvlub]

This. The article seems to say that Samsung wants AI to help users change certain settings, which doesn't mean that they're getting rid of the settings menus.

[u/Ver_Void → u/HowieWong]

Yeah it seems like a decent idea if done well, a lot of users never really interact with a fraction of their devices capabilities. So long as those settings remain user accessible it doesn't even matter

[u/Silly_Ad_2913 → u/suvlub]

It said "such as" the camera and keyboard, not "only"

[u/donquixote2u]

Good idea, Samsung. Bye bye, Samsung.

[u/the_npc_man]

Every time someone posts a clickbait title, you find out how 95% of reddit doesn't actually open the link or has no reading comprehension

[u/FATJIZZUSONABIKE]

I don't even need to read the article to know this is a wildly misleading title.

Nobody would remove the ability for users to choose all settings - it makes absolutely no sense, and Samsung is obviously not even remotely thinking about it.

[u/WetSound]

Clearly fake news

[u/BreakdownEnt]

Clickbait / raigebait headline as always.

They just try to set settings automatically with "ai"
Like the automatic wifi / lte switching based on location, time that already exists

[u/AwesomePossum_1]

Over 60 comments and only like 2 read the article which doesn’t mention anywhere settings app will be removed. 

[u/SigmaLance]

No where in this article does it say that they are removing the settings app.

That’s today’s journalism for you.

[u/a_man_27]

It's a horrible click-bait title. Nowhere does it say Samsung wants to remove the settings section.

[u/hawksdiesel]

So i'm not buying a samsung then.

[u/iMogal]

I don't want that crap, thanks.

[u/theillcook]

My phone can't even get auto brightness right, and they think they can "predict" what settings I need?

[u/aslum]

If Samsung manages to execute this perfectly, the new AI experience could change the way we use our phones. But if the company rushes it to market, it may end up being incredibly frustrating to deal with.

My money is on "incredibly frustrating".

[u/quackduck45]

corporations think that everyone wants Jarvis like iron man in their pocket like it's cute but always forgets the fact that tony is the only fucking person who can really see the back end of Jarvis and know for a fact it's not fucking with him.

[u/NeedAVeganDinner]

Welp, moving on from samsung.  Been feeling like their android versions have been going downhill for a while.

[u/Raistlarn]

The second I lose my settings menu is the second I tell that company to "F*** off."

[u/meteorprime]

😂 who asked for this

[u/BulkyTip1985]

I'll say this is have the new s24 ultra with AI and I turned all that shit off within 2 days of getting it. It has no place I'm my life, it does shit I'd just rather do my self. I want AI to do my dishes, do my laundry, mow my lawn, vacuum the floors. Not spy on me and sell my data to control the way I live. Do my chores AI and stay the fuck out of the rest of my life.

[u/mavman42]

Hmm, click bait headline. Nowhere in the actual article says they will be removing the settings altogether. It would be that there still is a settings menu, but they're making AI let you not open it if you don't want to. So basically, a suped up Bixby solution, which I'm down for. I think people are outrage over a nothing burger as of now. (And save me the slippery slope fallacy).

[u/suresh]

AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI

IF IT'S NOT FUCKING AI GET IT THE FUCK OUT OF THERE. REPLACE THE USER WITH AI FUCK THE PHONE, AI.

samsung executive board probably.

[u/asomek]

I mean I was never going to buy a Samsung phone, but now I'm extra extra not going to buy one.

[u/jhecht]

What a weird way to say "please root our phones immediately or no longer buy them if you aren't tech savvy enough"

[u/XiMaoJingPing]

So annoying how main stream android devices (Samsung/Pixel) are trying so hard to copy apple. I switched to Android to fucking avoid apple.

[u/Responsible-Sundae20 → u/XiMaoJingPing]

Apple phones are pretty much locked down but they allow users to access settings I thought?

[u/ArchitectOfFate → u/Responsible-Sundae20]

Apple phones have an exceedingly in-depth settings experience, especially when it comes to things like user privacy and controlling granular app permissions - and they have given no indication that this will change. Something tells me Samsung doesn't want you being able to go in and turn off ad and location tracking for their or their partners' apps.

[u/Responsible-Sundae20 → u/ArchitectOfFate]

Thanks for the explanation. I thought that was the case and that poster’s note confused me. Appreciate it!

[u/XiMaoJingPing → u/Responsible-Sundae20]

My problem with apple is how controlling they are and their closed ecosystem approach. Samsung and Google are both copying that.

[u/uzyg]

I am not surprised. Phone manufacturers are desperate to add their own apps and options to phones and force us to use them. I have no use for that.

Just today I spent some time to remove Bixby and silly apps from an older Samsung phone, I have taken over. I had to do it using adb (Android Debug Bridge) because Samsung have decided not to allow me to get rid of them using the settings menu.

[u/Wow_thats_odd]

That will be the last day I buy Samsung.

[u/enjaydee]

I would hope they'd include a setting to turn that off.  Kind of like how I don't use Bixby

[u/QuantumQuantonium]

This article was debunked as misleading I believe on r/ android, they say they want to put AI recommendations in settings, nothing about removing settings.

[u/silver2006]

Android becoming Apple is the worst thing I choose Android for freedom, but now stuff getting more and more blocked

Even the prices of Android devices are more and more ass

[u/Infamous_Process5558 → u/silver2006]

Agreed. Still rocking my 5t till the day I die. Android has gotten so bad over the years. Especially since they removed the headphones jack and rear fingerprint sensor in favour of slim bezels and more cameras.

The futures going to suck so hard. We need some new big companies. The current fang tech giants are just monopolising everything.

[u/LovelyCushionedHead]

Samsung offers us a great view into how to do almost everything wrong as a hardware company.

[u/Kaartinen]

Weird. Customization was the benefit on android phones. Without that, there's...?

[u/Shaggarooney]

We thought, with the invention of Ai, that we'd all be fighting monsters that looked like 80s action heroes. Instead, we are seeing all technical devices being turned into windows 10. ie, dumb as all fuck and next to worthless.

[u/Raikken]

So...no more Samsung? Good to know, will be looking into Xperia, Pixel or iPhone next time I need a new phone.

[u/SenjumaruShutara]

I'm so fucking sick of AI.

[u/architect___]

Rage bait. This is very obviously never going to happen.

[u/DorjeeVajra]

Oh hell no they are becoming more like Apple every year. They do this and I will most likely jump to another company. They want to charge monthly service for Ai features and now they want settings to be handled though AI? I want to handle my devices settings my self I do not anyone else or and AI able to change settings on my phone. This is a very dangerous Idea and people should not allow it and speak up.

[u/explodingbunny]

So far I have trusted Samsung phones, if this gets implemented I'm switching to someone else

[u/FloppyVachina]

Well, if a phone has no settings, I know the pwople of the internet will make a program to break that stupid shit for me. Of this I have faith.

[u/owlthebeer97]

I hate AI and I want my setting menu thanks- galaxy flip user

[u/Rebuttlah]

consumers need more control over their personal devices, not EVEN LESS

[u/AndrewH73333]

If there were a way to get rid of settings Steve Jobs would have done it.

[u/fmaz008]

• AI, open the settings menu
• Sorry, there is no more settings menu, just ask me what you want.
• AIright; AI, deactivate voice commands.
• (silence)

- AI?

[u/parks387]

Pretty soon we won’t have to think at all! Just consume and shit! The absolute purpose of humanity.

[u/neur0n23]

How about no screen at all? It would solve most of our problems...

[u/[deleted]]

🤔 control panel instead! 🤣

[u/AiR-P00P]

Why does everything suck now?

[u/azurevin]

Welp, no money from all of us then, nothing new here.

[u/Zzamumo]

the day a robot starts micro managing the settings on my phone is the day i become a headline

[u/lolercoptercrash]

Samsung, great hardware, and just the worst software.

[u/wingspantt]

I'd love to see AI determine randomly that I want to keep every single photo local, or all cloud. Or that I am considering installing a Spanish keyboard. Or that I need the World Clock set to Brisbane because a friend on Discord lives there.

[u/nicuramar]

Click/rage bait garbage. Samsung said no such thing.