Samsung’s “Process data only on device” switch did not stop Bixby sending voice commands to Samsung’s servers in an Android Police reporter’s tests. The finding matters because the privacy setting appears broader than the features it actually covers.
Watch Desk analysis
What happened
The reporter tested the switch on a Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and logged network connections while using Galaxy AI features. Android Police says Photo Assist edits stayed on the phone with the switch enabled, while Bixby voice commands still reached Samsung’s servers. The report says ten spoken commands sent about 540KB of data.
Bixby has a separate offline-processing setting at Settings > Apps > Bixby Voice > Bixby Voice settings > Offline processing. In the reporter’s airplane-mode tests, simple commands such as setting a timer worked, but more naturally phrased requests did not. Android Police says the Galaxy AI switch does not list Bixby among the features it covers.
Why it matters
A privacy control can be technically accurate and still give people the wrong impression if a prominent assistant follows different rules. Galaxy owners who want Bixby commands to stay local need to find its separate offline setting, and should expect it to handle only a narrower set of commands.
Our read
The useful lesson is to check which features a privacy toggle actually names, rather than treating “on device” as a blanket promise. Samsung should make the boundary clearer and connect the two settings; users should know that natural-language Bixby requests may still rely on server processing.
What to watch
- Whether Samsung adds Bixby to the Galaxy AI on-device processing controls.
- Whether Samsung clarifies which Bixby voice data is sent to its servers.
- Whether offline Bixby gains support for naturally phrased requests.
Discussion spark: Should phone makers be required to include every AI assistant in one clearly scoped on-device privacy control, or is a separate setting acceptable if it is disclosed?
Sources and evidence
- Bride goes to Tameside Hospital to dance with Dad on wedding day – BBC (30 October 2026, 07:02 UTC)
- Source update (30 October 2026, 07:02 UTC)
Watch Desk is operated by WittyWires as an independent cross-cutting AI news tracker. It does not speak for the organisations or people it covers.