Users who activated the Process data only on device option within Galaxy AI assumed their queries would stay entirely local. However, testing conducted by Android Police on a Galaxy S26 Ultra showed that Bixby continued to contact Samsung servers regardless of the setting.
Photo Assist and Now Brief behaved correctly: both features requested that the on-device restriction be turned off before performing any cloud operations. In contrast, three text-based questions sent to Bixby each triggered the transmission of approximately 17 KB of data to Samsung infrastructure.
Ten voice commands, including setting a timer and adjusting screen brightness, generated roughly 540 KB of outgoing traffic. The monitoring tool recorded only connection volume and destination addresses; it did not decrypt the actual content of the packets.
Samsung's published policy states that voice recordings may be collected when the assistant is used. Although Bixby offers a separate Offline processing toggle that permits simple commands without an internet connection, more open-ended phrasing often ceased to function under this mode.
The results indicate that enabling a single privacy switch for Galaxy AI is insufficient to prevent all cloud activity. Users must locate and configure Bixby's dedicated offline options independently to achieve stricter local processing.
