Samsung's Galaxy S25 Launch Sparks Debate on Feature Similarities with Apple's iPhone

Over a dozen ways Samsung ripped off Apple at the Galaxy S25 launch

Fanboys on both ends have long debated: What came first -- the Samsung or the Apple? Although only one of the tech giants has been taken to court for copying the other's iconic design, the two parties have been inspiring each other for years. Notably, Apple tends to be more subtle with its reproduction. Samsung, on the other hand, well... just blatantly ripped off over a dozen Apple features and designs during its Galaxy S25 launch. It's no secret that Apple is lagging behind in the artificial intelligence race. While the latest Android phones are now equipped with advanced AI tools, the Apple Intelligence rollout has been drawn out, and its tools, comparatively, are somewhat basic. Nevertheless, the iPhone's AI suite has clearly caught Samsung's attention. Apple Intelligence offers built-in ChatGPT integration with others, including Google Gemini, coming down the road. One of Samsung's marquee AI features is that its AI infrastructure is designed to accommodate third-party chatbots, starting with Google Gemini over its own Bixby AI assistant. When you trigger Gemini, you get a text box featuring a colorful glowing border -- just like Siri. Samsung also showed off how the chatbot supports both text and voice input. Meanwhile, selecting text brings up a UI that is almost identical to Apple's Writing Tools, letting users proofread the selection, turn it into a table, etc. Samsung then announced how its Phone app can now record, transcribe, and summarize calls, a perk familiar to iOS 18 users. Similarly, Galaxy S25 users will get to search for photos using natural language, summarize online articles, and turn photos into illustrations -- Image Playground style. Finally, the Galaxy S25 series will offer cross-app actions, letting AI agents search for and fetch information from multiple sources just like Siri App Intents. The approach similarly highlights the company's commitment to users' privacy, offering a mode that limits cloud processing. Beyond AI-centric perks, Samsung previewed One UI 7 during the Galaxy S25 keynote. Perhaps this OS version's signature feature is the Now Bar, which surfaces ongoing events -- or, one could say, Live Activities. Like its iOS counterpart, it'll not-so-originally highlight real-time sports scores, timers, and other similar tasks. Samsung then proceeded to boast about the S25's camera features, which include a few tricks your iPhone learned months ago. Notably, Galaxy users will finally get to record log video and edit audio to focus on the speaker's voice or their surroundings. The company even revealed its own take on Apple's second-gen Photographic Styles, which lets our fellow green-bubbled folks apply advanced filters to their shots and control their tones. While the similarities between the two operating systems' features may be more prominent, Apple-like hardware also made it to Samsung's party. The Galaxy S25 Ultra, like the iPhone 16 Pro, now offers flat edges and rounded corners. For those unfamiliar, the flagship's Galaxy predecessors had sharp corners and a curved body. Samsung, like Apple, also continues to preserve titanium for its highest-end model, while the entry-level ones settle for aluminum. A slim iPhone 17 Air has been rumored for a September 2025 debut for some time. Samsung beat Apple to the punch, teasing a similar concept dubbed the Galaxy S25 Edge. Like the rumored iPhone 17 Air, the S25 Edge will miss out on certain premium components, like a triple camera system, in favor of a sleeker design that prioritizes aesthetics over performance. Samsung then showed media personnel its all-new, Qi2-compatible protective covers, which are quite literally identical to Apple's transparent MagSafe cases. While the magnets' shape and alignment are dictated by the wireless charging standard, Samsung could've at least opted for an original color and design that better aligns with its Galaxy design language. Last but not least, journalists also got to check out Samsung's upcoming Project Moohan VR headset, which looks like a cheaper mockup of the Apple Vision Pro. If you accidentally put it on at some point in the future, you'll also notice that it's powered by Android VR, which has also borrowed elements from visionOS's glassy, translucent user interface -- but that's not Samsung's fault. Many Apple fans may be reading this and shaking their heads. But while Samsung might have gotten a good amount of inspiration from Apple and the iPhone, the S25's features aren't straight copies. For example, the Photographic Styles clone lets users copy another image's composition and create a filter based on its hues. Similarly, the audio studio in the video editor is more comprehensive, allowing users to amplify or mute more sound types. The Now Bar will offer a briefing feature that "provides a personalized briefing of selected content that updates throughout the day." And so on. In the smartphone industry, competition revolves around the way handsets and features are perfected and presented. iOS and Android have matured to the point where they both can perform the same main tasks in a nearly identical way. So, whenever one of them innovates, the other tends to build upon that foundation when releasing its own variation on the same theme. As a result, both Apple and Samsung users continue to receive upgraded tools that elevate the mobile computing experience. But, come on, Samsung, maybe next time let's try to be a little more subtle.

Samsung Galaxy S25 copied more than a dozen iPhone features, says Macworld

The piece acknowledges that both companies copy from each other, but suggests that Samsung is a little less subtle in its approach ... Macworld's Mahmoud Itani makes the case, starting with Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence offers built-in ChatGPT integration with others, including Google Gemini, coming down the road. One of Samsung's marquee AI features is that its AI infrastructure is designed to accommodate third-party chatbots, starting with Google Gemini over its own Bixby AI assistant. When you trigger Gemini, you get a text box featuring a colorful glowing border -- just like Siri. Samsung also showed off how the chatbot supports both text and voice input. Meanwhile, selecting text brings up a UI that is almost identical to Apple's Writing Tools, letting users proofread the selection, turn it into a table, etc. He goes on to point to the ability to transcribe and summarize phone calls, user natural-language search in the Photos app, and a feature bearing more than a passing resemblance to Image Playground. Other examples cited include the Live Activities-like Now Bar and the ability to use "cinematic audio" features when recording video. There's certainly no doubt that Samsung copies from Apple. One of its favorite tactics is to wait until an upcoming iPhone feature is rumored or leaked, and then rush its own version to market so it can claim to have been first, while Apple takes its own sweet time to get things right. But there's equally no doubt that Apple copies from Samsung, and of course there are tech developments which multiple companies will adopt once they become available. Ultimately it's all good: the more closely companies compete, the greater the incentive for each company to come up with the best possible implementation of each new idea.