- Samsung is “looking into” the potential of vibe coding on its phones
- This follows its Unpacked where it debuted the S26 series “AI phones”
- Samsung made no direct promises but does see the appeal of users coding and customizing their own apps and UX
Samsung recently debuted the Galaxy S26 series of phones and made a point to not call them smartphones — they’re “AI phones” now. This certainly rang true with the majority of upgrades to the devices being AI software-focused, like the new Now Nudge and expanded Audio Eraser tools, with the biggest hardware bump for the base models coming via the 39% improved NPU processing (the processor in charge of on-device AI tasks).
It also teased the debut of Perplexity on its phones, joining as an alternative to the Gemini assistant, and teased the possibility of other AI models getting the same treatment in the future. But one AI feature I didn’t hear mentioned once — despite it being the current hot topic in the AI space — was vibe coding, and when I asked Samsung if this feature might appear on its phones Won-Joon Choi (Samsung’s head of mobile experience) told me it’s “something we’re looking into.”
As noted by Won-Joon Choi, the usefulness of vibe coding on smartphones is that it opens up the “possibility of customising your smartphone experience in new ways, not just your apps but your UX.”
He added, “Right now we’re limited to premade tools, but with vibe coding, users could adjust their favorite apps or make something customized to their needs. So vibe coding is very interesting, and something we’re looking into.”
What is vibe coding?
Vibe coding is the coding version of getting an AI to help you write, make an image, or complete any other task. You say what you want to build — I’d make one that lets me watch regular YouTube videos but blocks out shorts — and the AI will code it for you.
It’s not new in the world of AI. Coding assistance was one of the earliest uses for modern LLMs, but recently dedicated vibe coding models have hit the scene. Much like how the latest iterations of AI image and video tools have taken a giant leap forward, these coding tools have as well.
Rather than just serving as a second pair of eyes, or an assistant to get some basic building blocks prepared that an experienced coder would need to assemble, vibe coding software can help near total novices build working apps.
Given the open nature of Android – something I’d just heard Won-Joon Choi and Samsung’s chief marketing officer Benjamin Braun celebrate in a post-Unpacked panel — it’s very easy for users to install their own apps on their device compared with, say, Apple systems, which are more locked down. As such, an in-built vibe coding tool feels like a no-brainer for Samsung.
Samsung seemed to agree, though, as you’d expect, it didn’t commit to saying definitely when or even if this feature will one day be built directly into its devices in some capacity.
That said, the idea did at least seem to interest Samsung’s head of mobile experience, and given the excitement vibe coding is generating in the coding space, I’m not surprised by his response. We’ll have to wait and see what Samsung has up its sleeve, but perhaps this AI phone thing could be more exciting than I first thought.
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