I disabled the AICore app on my Samsung phone, and here’s why you might want to

I’m all for boosting the efficiency of my Android phone, which means uninstalling or disabling apps and services I don’t need. With the advent of AI services, it’s more important than ever to trim the fat on my device.

If you’ve scrolled through your system apps list recently, you may have noticed an app called AICore running in the background. It’s known for consuming a lot of RAM, draining the battery, and occasionally sending annoying notifications. This got me thinking: would it be so bad to disable AICore, even if it’s a system process?

Below, I detail what you need to know about disabling AICore, including what it did to my phone, and whether you should consider it too.

Dear AICore: Who are you, and what do you do?

AICore can be found on most modern Android devices, including newer Google Pixel devices and my Galaxy S24 FE running Android 16.

Per Google’s description, AICore specifically helps update and maintain on-device AI models — e.g., Gemini Nano — that run locally and allows apps that require these features to access them. This means the service requires no data connection or cloud communication to process any requests or queries — everything is done on the phone itself.

Google’s guidance on Nano specifically states:

For on-device use-cases, you can take advantage of Google’s Gemini Nano foundation model. Gemini Nano runs in Android’s AICore system service, which leverages device hardware to enable low inference latency and keeps the model up-to-date.

Considering just how integral AI is to the modern Android experience, AICore seems like an app you’d rather keep running in the background. After all, it enables the following smarts:

• Summarizing text, like a web page or news article.
• Proofreading messages and text written by the user.
• Rewriting messages and text in different tones and styles.
• Generation of image descriptions.
• The processing of prompts issued to Gemini Nano. including the extraction of info from an email thread or receipt and generating content.

If you’re using a Google Pixel, apps like Pixel Studio, Pixel Screenshots, the Phone app’s Call Notes feature, Magic Compose in Google Messages, and the Summarize feature in the Pixel Recorder app also require AICore.

You’ll find similar capabilities as part of Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite. However, these seem to use cloud-based processing or a Samsung-specific local model, so turning off AICore alone won’t be enough to disable them. But more on that in a minute.

In any case, if you decry the use of AI, disabling AICore wouldn’t necessarily affect you. As AICore powers AI-related features alone, it would make sense to disable it if you don’t use these. And, in my case, reclaiming the resources the app is occupying is certainly a positive.

Oh no! I can’t access that AI feature I never use!

Disabling AICore is no different from disabling any other app on Android. I took the following steps:

• I navigated to Settings > Apps.
• I then searched for “AICore.” Once the result appeared, I tapped it.
• On the AICore app screen, I scrolled down to the bottom of the page and tapped Force Stop.
• I then tapped Disable.

And as a final step to ensure that all processing was limited to my Samsung phone, I enabled the “Process data only on device” option. You can find it in Settings > Galaxy AI. Rather than disabling AICore, this toggle actually disables cloud-based Galaxy AI services from running.

I didn’t notice any significant changes on my phone at first. This is partly because AICore doesn’t seem to be used for many Samsung AI services, including the offline ones. Audio transcriptions and Generative Edit continue to work. However, other services that rely on the cloud, such as text summaries and Sketch to image, will now prompt you to turn off Process data only on device.

As much as I find the novelty of Gallery’s features entertaining and the usefulness of the Internet’s features alluring, I use neither app in my daily life. Disabling them, therefore, had little to no effect on me.

Granted, there are a host of other AI features that will also be disabled when you disable AICore and Samsung’s cloud processing, but I don’t use any of them either. In any case, those that do matter continue to function. This includes Circle to Search (which is largely just a Google Lens shortcut) and Live Transcribe, which I use regularly to snag snippets from meetings or dictate thoughts. Neither product seems to require AICore running in the background.

Considering I just disabled a system service that manages a fairly important modern Android feature, I didn’t once encounter a feature that didn’t work that I would normally use.

Does disabling AICore make your phone faster? Not necessarily.

The most significant positive of disabling AICore is regaining some RAM, storage, and battery life. It’s a common refrain I’ve seen from those online who’ve done it. However, I can’t claim to share a similar experience.

As mentioned, I’m running a Galaxy S24 FE and have barely used Galaxy AI features. As a result, I didn’t see many megabytes released back into the wild. While AICore does occupy 1.3GB of storage on my phone, I couldn’t reclaim that without uninstalling the app. RAM was a similar story. AICore never seemed to occupy too much volatile storage on my phone, at least not as much as some other Samsung and Google processes.

Judging by reports from many users online and some of my colleagues, disabling AICore has a surprising surplus benefit: extended battery life. My colleague, Jonathan Feist, has noted “better battery life” on his Samsung phone since taking these measures, but others on various online forums have seen considerable increases in screen-on-time on their devices. I haven’t seen any battery benefits on my device, at least not any tangible gains. Some running Pixel 9 and 10s have noted up to three hours of additional screen-on-time — that’s incredible. Bear in mind that Pixels and their apps do rely heavily on Gemini Nano, as I’ve mentioned above.

Should you disable AICore on your smartphone?

I don’t believe AICore should be disabled on your device, unless it’s causing you issues. Notably, Jonathan disabled the app on his phone after experiencing high battery drain and constant notification harassment — it was a last resort of sorts. While it worked out well for his device, I never had an issue with AICore on mine.

If you are concerned about battery life, I’d suggest culling the apps you’ve installed yourself that you no longer use, rather than targeting system apps first. If you own a Samsung phone, apps like Weather, Interpreter, Personal data intelligence, and the Customization Service use plenty of memory in the background. Only then would I advise you to disable AICore.

As for my personal experience, I’ll likely keep AICore and Samsung’s cloud AI tools disabled for now. Considering the lack of disadvantages I’ve experienced when disabling them, I see no reason to keep them running. Your mileage will vary.