Samsung Bixby, the company’s own voice-assistant is now getting voice support for English users in the United States. Samsung Bixby is currently available only on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.
Earlier, Bixby, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered assistant was having voice support feature limited to Korean users. Also, it was available on a trial basis to those US users who had pre-registered for the same.
Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus come with a dedicated Bixby button located on the side. Users can activate the voice feature by pressing the button or by saying “Hi Bixby” on the phone. Users will have to update the Bixby application to get the voice feature.
According to the company, Bixby’s voice support feature will let users switch between voice commands, touch, vision, and text. For example, it can read out your SMS messages and emails, search books on the web, and can direct users to an e-commerce website for buying them.
What does Bixby Voice Support provide?
Bixby is already part of the Galaxy S8, S8 Plus camera and it can identify objects. So, what will this voice support feature do? The company says users can ask Bixby to complete simple tasks with voice command on the phone. For example, it can turn on the flashlight, take a selfie, or it can even set reminders and alarms. You can also find photos from a specific location on your phone.
Samsung made Bixby quite good at understanding natural language. For example, if you ask “what’s the weather forecast today’’ you can expect the right answer. It can also read out the latest text messages and emails in Samsung’s stock apps. So, users can now get the help of voice assistant to carry out actions like typing a text message via voice.
Samsung will also provide third-party app support for Bixby. For example, you can use Bixby to change your destination in Google Maps. The list of such apps might be limited and includes only those that have opted for Bixby integration.
Apart from S8 and S8 Plus, the feature is most likely to be launched with the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 as well. The latest flagship of Note series is expected to launch on August 23 in New York. However, for Bixby, there is no clue when it will be available for other English-speaking countries.