Introduction
Samsung has long held a leading position in the smartphone market, but its software ecosystem continues to show a frustrating selectivity in terms of localization. A prime example of this is the recent One UI 8.5 update Galaxy S24 rollout. While it introduces stunning visual blur effects and deep Galaxy AI integration, users in Ukraine still face significant barriers due to the complete lack of Ukrainian language support for the smartest features.
The most striking example of this neglect is the branded voice assistant Bixby. Since its launch, it has never learned the Ukrainian language, turning into a completely useless function for most domestic users, which they try to turn off or reassign to other tasks in the first minutes after unboxing the device. And, unfortunately, this trend towards incomplete language support has migrated into the era of artificial intelligence.
Where it started: To see my initial thoughts on this hardware, check out the unboxing of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Cobalt Violet.
One UI 8.5 Update for Galaxy S24
The long-awaited release of One UI 8.5 has been a real treat for owners of current flagships, including the Samsung Galaxy S24. This update brought refined visual effects, a new interface logic with transparent blur effects, and deep integration of Galaxy AI algorithms into daily usage scenarios.
Users received expanded opportunities for personalizing lock screens, improved camera performance with logarithmic profiles, and optimized power saving. However, behind this beautiful screen of technological progress, owners of devices certified in Ukraine once again faced the fact that the most interesting “smart” features remain inaccessible to them due to the lack of language packs.
Innovations that have not received Ukrainian localization
When diving into the capabilities of Galaxy AI, the user quickly discovers a number of artificial barriers, which are described in the following functions:
- Responding to calls to answer: The assistant will not be able to communicate with subscribers in our language and translate it into text. The function is available only for a limited list of world languages.
- Edit images using text prompts: Works partially. The generation function itself is active, but text prompts (what exactly to change in the photo) must be entered in English. Ukrainian AI does not yet understand.
- Now brief on the lock screen: This widget collects morning summaries (news, weather, schedule). Since text algorithms are tied to large language models (LLMs), which are not adapted to our region, the function will either be unavailable or displayed in English.
- Automatic language detection in Translator: Since there is still no Ukrainian language pack for on-the-fly voice recognition, the device will not be able to automatically detect our language in a dialogue.
- Smarter device management / Ask anything, anytime / Conversation history: All these improvements will pass by if you do not communicate with the assistant in English, German, Polish or other supported languages.
- Direct voicemail: Does not work in Ukraine. This feature requires transcription (conversion of voice to text) on the fly, which again rested on the lack of support for the Ukrainian language in Samsung’s voice AI. In addition, operator support is required (Kyivstar, Lifecell, Vodafone), which have not yet implemented this Live Voicemail standard from Samsung.
Camera Issues: If you are testing the upgraded camera in One UI 8.5 and noticing blurry edges on text, read my guide on the banana blur effect in Samsung Galaxy and how to fix it.
For example, the innovative call pre-response feature, which allows the virtual assistant to independently answer calls and ask subscribers about the purpose of their call, does not support the Ukrainian language at all. The assistant is simply not able to conduct a dialogue and transcribe it on the screen for our region.
A similar situation has befallen the image generation system using text prompts: although the engine itself works perfectly, you have to describe the desired changes or new objects in the photo exclusively in English or other supported languages, since the AI does not understand Ukrainian commands.
Intelligent widgets have also suffered from language discrimination. The Now brief function, which is supposed to display personalized and context-sensitive morning summaries on the lock screen, relies on large language models that have not been properly adapted to Ukrainian content and syntax.
In the communications sector, the lack of our language pack for automatic language detection during live conversations in the “Translator” is disappointing, as a result of which users have to manually switch the microphone each time. Direct voicemail, which allows you to see the text transcript of a message right while the subscriber is recording it, also remains inactive in Ukraine.
And, of course, none of Bixby’s updates, including its new “smarter” context understanding algorithm and conversation history, make any sense without understanding our language.
Conclusions
The One UI 8.5 update for the Samsung Galaxy S24 undoubtedly makes the smartphone faster, more beautiful and more convenient in basic aspects. However, the situation with language support for the Galaxy AI ecosystem and branded services leaves mixed feelings. By purchasing a premium certified device for full price, the Ukrainian user still receives somewhat “truncated” functionality. It remains to be hoped that with the rapid development of language models, Samsung will finally pay attention to this shortcoming and fully integrate the Ukrainian language into its advanced neural network developments.
