Samsung has woven AI into nearly every corner of its Galaxy phones, from writing assistants and live translation to photo editing and notification summaries. Some people love it. Others find the constant suggestions annoying, or would simply rather their data stayed on the device. Either way, Samsung does give you control - you just have to know where the switches live.

The central hub is the Galaxy AI page in Settings, or under Advanced features on some models. Open it and you will see the full list: Call assist, Writing assist, Interpreter, Note assist, Transcript assist, Browsing assist, Photo assist, and more. There is no single master off-switch, so work down the list and toggle off each feature you do not use, starting with the ones that interrupt you most.

For a faster sweep, use the on-device processing option. On the Galaxy AI page, turning on Process data only on device disables every AI feature that relies on cloud processing in one move - and that is most of them, including call translation, writing tools, photo assist, and browsing summaries. It is the closest thing to a global off-switch Samsung offers, with the bonus that your data stops leaving the phone.

Two extras live outside that hub. Circle to Search, the long-press gesture that searches whatever is on screen, is controlled in Settings under Display and then Navigation bar. And the Gemini digital assistant, which replaced Google Assistant on most new phones, can be swapped out in Settings under Apps, then Default apps, then Digital assistant app.

Disabling AI features does not break your phone. Everything else keeps working exactly as before - you simply lose the specific tool you turned off. And if you later change your mind, every toggle is right where you left it. Curious what is actually running on your chip when those features are on? Read what on-device AI is and which phones have it to understand the difference between local and cloud processing.

One more angle worth knowing: the same centralized AI hub that annoys some people powers genuinely useful tools for others, like live call translation and AI photo cleanup. If you want the full picture, our guides to what AI agents actually do and stopping apps from tracking you on Android cover both the promise and the privacy tradeoffs of this new AI layer.