Bixby 2.0 Release Date, News: Samsung Expected to Unveil Major Update This Week
Recent reports suggest that Samsung could be releasing a major update for their smart assistant, Bixby, very soon.
The news came in with The Korea Herald's report that Samsung recently to appointed a new company executive to focus on Bixby's development.
Bixby debuted alongside the Galaxy S8 and S8+ earlier this year. However, the smart assistant's initial release went through some bumps as Samsung failed to deliver the feature complete with its English voice control component upon the launch of the said devices.
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It took the South Korean electronics firm several months to be able to deliver the full voice control feature to other major markets, including the United States.
According to The Korea Herald's report, the appointment of a new executive, Samsung Research America's vice chief Chung Eui-suk, means that more focus will be placed the development of Bixby in a move to improve the technology and better the market's response to their own smart assistant.
Chung is now delegated as the company's head of service intelligence group stationed in their headquarters in South Korea which oversees several Samsung services, now including Bixby.
However, Samsung denied that Chung's appointment was a move to "replace" Samsung Mobile's chief technology officer Rhee In-jong, who used to lead the development of Bixby.
The company told the local publication, "Chung's new move cannot be seen as Rhee's replacement as Rhee will continue to remain as the head of development 1 division that oversees the service intelligence group."
Alongside the confirmation of Chung's appointment, Samsung confirmed that they are now working on the "incomplete parts" of the first Bixby release which will be reinforced as the Bixby 2.0 launches.
Meanwhile, Samsung also confirmed that they have invited third-party developers to pitch in on improving the smart assistant. However, their efforts will most likely manifest in the Bixby 2.0 version.
This means that Bixby 2.0 is most likely going to introduce functions linked to third-party applications.
The same report noted that Bixby 2.0 could be launched during Samsung's Developer Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 18, in San Francisco, California.
