Google just offered an early glimpse at some of the new features coming as part of its Android 17 update. While there's no shortage of helpful new tricks, including a way to curb excessive screentime, bolster security when sending text messages, and an entirely new way to generate your own custom widgets.
But the biggest new addition is Gemini Intelligence.
When you connect your apps to Gemini, it will be able to pull tailored information to answer your specific requests | GOOGLE PRESS OFFICEThis is an agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) system from Google designed to automate actions on Android devices. Until now, AI built into these devices has been focused on answering your general knowledge queries, recognising your routine to proactively suggest apps or information, edit photographs, and more. But Gemini Intelligence aims to book concert tickets, search through your Google-built apps like Gmail and Google Photos for specific information — like a passport number, and analyse on-screen items like a grocery list and automatically build a shopping cart in another app.
It's clever stuff, and if you're willing to put your trust in Gemini Intelligence, it could save you a lot of time.
Gemini Intelligence will be released in the coming months, before rolling out to more devices with Android 17
| GOOGLE PRESS OFFICEGoogle hasn't revealed exactly when you'll be able to update your existing smartphone or tablet to Android 17, but it has confirmed that its own Google Pixel will join Samsung Galaxy as the first devices to receive the new features.
We've now learned the minimum hardware requirements for Gemini Intelligence, and there aren't many Samsung Galaxy devices that make the cut. Buried in the small print on its Android website, Google confirms that devices will need the following to be able to run Gemini Intelligence:
- Nano models on device AI (integrate AI Core + Nano v3 or greater)
- Media performance (latest): spatial audio, low light, HDR; gaming: annual GGI + driver updates
- 12GB+ RAM
- Qualified SOC (flagship chip)
- Quality in Field: Meet SLOs (e.g., crash rate) in 2026. Further enforced in 2027
- Quality at Launch: pass test suite on A17+
- OS: 5 upgrades, AVF, pKVM
- Security: 6 yrs, quarterly
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Samsung started guaranteeing a minimum of 6 years of security updates with the launch of the Galaxy S24 lineup back in January 2024. Later, Samsung extended its 6-year guarantee — both major Android operating system releases and security patches — to several budget models, beginning with the Galaxy A36 and A56.
So as long as you've got one of these devices in your pocket, you will meet that threshold.
However, the inclusion of a flagship system-on-a-chip rules out the more affordable Galaxy A series. Even handsets that are powered by the likes of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, an undoubtedly flagship silicon, like the Galaxy S24, top out at 8GB of RAM, so it doesn't qualify for Gemini Intelligence.
And the Nano V3 requirement — an on-device multimodal Artificial Intelligence model from Google — even rules out devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 released last summer. In fact, the only Samsung Galaxy smartphones that meet the complete list of requirements outlined by Google are:
- Galaxy S26
- Galaxy S26+
- Galaxy S26 Ultra
With Gemini Intelligence likely to debut later this year, we'd expect the successors to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 to meet the same requirements and ship with Gemini Intelligence. Likewise, the Galaxy S27 series coming next year will also undoubtedly all meet the hardware list above to ship with Gemini Intelligence out of the box.
But those with a Samsung Galaxy S25 — released just last year with a £799 price tag — will be out of luck for now. Of course, there are already plenty of AI features built into this device, including Samsung's own Galaxy AI tricks.