Updated on May 18 with further analysis of Google’s new upgrade decision.
Bad news for hundreds of millions of owners of Android smartphones. It turns out that if you want Google’s latest upgrade, anything other than a 2026 phone won’t be good enough. And that means even Samsung’s nearly new, $1500-plus Galaxy S25 doesn’t make the cut.
As Android specialists @AssembleDebug have just warned, Google’s new “Gemini Intelligence features are only available on Android devices with the most advanced capabilities and spec requirements.” That means Google’s Pixel 10 series and Samsung’s Galaxy S26 series.
Google says Gemini Intelligence has been built with security and privacy at its center. This is about automating tasks, but that comes with risks. “Because great AI experiences require uncompromising privacy, we’ve grounded Gemini Intelligence on Android in three core principles.” Those are “explicit user control, comprehensive data protection (and) operational transparency.”
Per SammyFans, “Gemini Intelligence is officially arriving first on Samsung phones, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Fold 7 might already be outdated. Google’s new Gemini Intelligence platform landed this week with a requirements list that reads like a bouncer deciding who gets into the club, and some very expensive Samsung Galaxy phones didn’t make the cut.” Phones also need “at least five Android OS upgrades and six years of quarterly security patches.”
“Whatever the case,” 9to5Google says, “Google says that Gemini Intelligence will make its debut on Pixel and Samsung Galaxy devices later this year, with a report suggesting that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will be the first to launch the new features.”
Google says “with (these new) AI powered features, users have granular authority to opt-in and out of entire features or disable specific components at any time. By putting the choice in your hands, we ensure that AI assistance feels like a helpful partner rather than an intrusive presence.” But “Gemini Intelligence features are only available on Android devices with the most advanced capabilities and spec requirements.” And that means a 2026 smartphone, it now seems.
While Gemini Intelligence may not be available on the vast majority of Android phones — even those purchased as recently as last year, excitement is building. To such an extent, in fact, that Android Authority now asks “if Gemini can do everything for me, what’s the point of Android?”
If you’re lucky enough to have a new enough phone to run the upgrade, then “once you step back away from its dazzle, you realize that it fundamentally changes how we interact with our smartphones. If Gemini can search, plan, compare, reply, and execute tasks on my behalf, where exactly do I come into the process? Do I actively participate, or just hover over its actions to supervise it? Do I only approve what AI has already done, or let it mess up and come to me later to fix things?”
And this could be a timely boon for Android. “Gemini Intelligence promises a whole lot, some of it similar to what Apple promised iPhone owners almost two years ago,” Apple Insider says. “Apple has yet to produce the personalized Apple Intelligence features that were revealed during WWDC 2024.”
Google has lauded these new features — albeit the requirement for a 2026 phone to run them — “less than a month before Apple’s WWDC 2026 event kicks off on June 8. Surely, that isn’t a coincidence.”
But if you do buy a new phone to run Gemini Intelligence, then you could be changing your smartphone more than you expect.
