Bixby Digital Assistant Features: Smart Features Make Samsung Phones More Productive
With the release of the Bixby digital assistant to Samsung's flagship phones in the United States, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners now have a use for the dedicated Bixby button on the side of their handsets.
With voice support rolling out to Galaxy S8 devices in the U.S., Samsung has overcome the language barrier that the earlier version of Bixby struggled with. Before, the digital assistant had to be held back from a full release with the launch of the Galaxy S8 due to issues with understanding English.
Now, after a beta test that demonstrated that the new Bixby is ready for primetime, Samsung is hoping that Bixby will stand its ground with the likes of Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. A few features unique to Samsung's AI helper could help it stand out, according to the International Business Times.
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Samsung highlights the contextual understanding capabilities of Bixby Voice, showing how the assistant can understand a sequence of requests. In a demo during the Galaxy S8 release, Bixby was able to understand a multipart request to take a screenshot and send it to a contact.
Bixby Vision is another feature that hopes to make use of the Galaxy S8's advanced imaging capabilities. It overlays information on items as it catches them in its field of vision from the phone's cameras, and could prove useful for reading road signs or shopping labels.
Bixby Home provides a feed that displays information based on what it thinks the user needs at the moment. These data are presented in the form of cards which hold snippets of information about the weather, status of home gadgets, or upcoming schedule entries.
While other assistants generally come with female voices — Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana comes to mind — Bixby has a male voice available by default. Compared to some assistants, Bixby's reminder entries are also more customizable, allowing users to add photos or website links to their schedule items.
The video below highlights some of the capabilities of the Samsung Bixby digital assistant, now rolling out to Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ units in the U.S.
