Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ users will be able to sign up and do early testing for an English version of Bixby. (Image Source: Reuters)
Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ users will be able to sign up and do early testing for an English version of Bixby. This is the company’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based voice assistant similar to the Google Assistant. Bixby in English will available for a full download later this month.
Samsung launched the Galaxy S8, S8+ in March 2017, and currently only Bixby’s image recognition feature is a part of the phone. However, the English version of Bixby, which can have an actual conversation with users just like the Google Assistant, has not yet rolled out for most parts of the world. Now Samsung’s US website has opened public beta access for the same. According to reports in Korean Media, Bixby’s English-speaking version will likely be extended to other countries as well.
Samsung reportedly began to recruit volunteers for a pre-test of Bixby this week, according to reports. Samsung has also listed the terms and conditions for Galaxy S8, S8+ users who are signing up for this early testing of the Bixby voice-assistant in English.
Samsung’s US website lists this as Bixby Early Access Program, and according to the terms and conditions, it points out that personal information accessed by Samsung as part of the program will be handled in accordance with Samsung’s Privacy Policy. Samsung won’t be charging a fee for customers who wish to participate in the Bixby Early Access Program.
Samsung will be using the information it collects from the Bixby Early Access Program for improving the service’s quality, etc. Of course that’s the case with all machine-learning driven, AI-based voice assistants, including Google, Amazon’s Alexa, etc. Samsung will send users a confirmation email as well after they sign up for Bixby on the website.
Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8+ already run the Google Assistant. The Bixby voice-assistant gets its own dedicated button on the phones, and can be used to wake up the assistant. Users can make contextual requests to Bixby. For instance, if you have a map app open, and were searching for directions to place, you can activate Bixby, and ask it to send ‘this’ to a contact on your list. Bixby is smart enough to understand ‘this’ in this context will mean directions to the place.
Bixby also shows all the related information for the day, from appointments, top news, etc when you swipe to the left of the homescreen. This information is displayed in a card format, similar to how Google Now works.
