Samsung TVs about to get a big Google upgrade – but not quite how you'd expect

Samsung is turning to Google for the next feature coming to its televisions, but it's not going to be the adoption of Google TV over the company's Tizen interface. Instead, Samsung plans to bring Google Photos to its televisions.

The addition of Google Photos will allow users to view images from their Google account, with Samsung detailing that deep integration is planned. That will see Google Photos accessed as part of Daily+ and Daily Board for a seamless experience, while there are plans to have a number of ways to curate the images seen.

That will include Memories, Create with AI and Personalised Results, with Memories being an exclusive feature for Samsung TVs for the first 6 months. This exclusivity is familiar territory for Samsung and an key indicator that these features will be available on other platforms too – most likely Google TV which is found on Sony, Philips and other TVs.

Memories will allow you to curate stories based on people or locations to be shown on your Samsung TV. That sounds like a great way to show off the grandkids at a family gathering, for example.

Create with AI uses templates built on Nano Banana to transform photos into something more interesting, while Personalised Results will show photos related to topics, like a place or activity.

That means it's not just going to be a random selection of Google Photos that get displayed, but something that you have more control over.

An indication of future TV features?

The move suggests that Google is looking for ways to unlock some of its content and make it available elsewhere. Photos aren't new on TVs: most platforms already offer some way to show images, whether through access to a particular online gallery or via casting in some form.

But these always seem a little random where you never know what's going to be shown. Moving toward a personally curated experience will provide the satisfaction that users want, knowing that it's not just going to be a collection of screenshots, photos of the floor and all the rest of the stuff that fills your Google Photos library.

Instead, I'm expecting to be able to call up pictures of the cat to share with everyone all the time. Showing holiday snaps will be easy, while it looks like Samsung will also bubble up memories similar to Google Photos based around time.

Samsung says that these features will appear through 2026, with Memories the first to arrive in early 2026, followed by the other two options "later in 2026".