Samsung’s Bixby won’t support voice comms when it debuts on the Galaxy S8

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Published 12 Apr 2017

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One of the marquee features of the Galaxy S8 is Bixby, Samsung’s response to the Siris, Assistants, Cortanas of the world. Billed as “a new way to interact with your phone,” Samsung has gone so far as to add a dedicated button on the side of the phone to summon its new assistant, has integrated it deeply into the S8’s interface. There’s just one problem: You won’t be able to talk to Bixby at launch.

In a statement released about a week before the S8 is set to hit shelves, Samsung confirmed that its new AI assistant will be missing a key component. ile it will support Vision, Home Reminder when it launches on April 21, Bixby Voice won’t be included on U.S. models. Samsung says the feature will arrive “later this spring.” 

ile the other Bixby features will be available, you’ll need to use them as you would any other app. For the AR-syle Vision, you’ll find an icon in the camera app that will call on Bixby’s services for translation, QR code detection, lmark recognition, shopping. And the Home screen, which is sort of like Now, will still learn your routine to display messages, upcoming events, weather, news. You’ll also be able to set reminders, which “can include specific content like a video you want to watch when you get home,” though it’s not clear how it will work within apps without voice comms.

Bixby Voice’s delay is surely frustrating but it’s not all that surprising. During Samsung’s hs-on demonstration of the service in late h, it showcased a controlled set of actions, reporters weren’t allowed to test the feature. At the time, reps said the S8-exclusive service would support English Korean languages at launch, with a goal of exping it to more languages devices. According to reports, Bixby will be able to converse in Korean at launch.

Voice may only be part of what Bixby does, but in today’s AI world, it’s a major one. ’ve been trained to talk to our assistants, we expect them to underst respond as if we’re talking to one of our friends. Bixby not being able to underst English—at least enough to roll out for English-speaking users—is a major detriment to its adoption, which already faces serious competition in Assistant.

Say what: The Galaxy S8 is one of the most exciting phones in years, the lack of Bixby Voice at launch isn’t likely to change many minds about it. It still has Assistant on board (which most people were probably going to use anyway), in the long run, it’s better that Samsung delays the service rather than release something that doesn’t work well. But Samsung is betting big on Bixby being a key component of its ecosystem, so it needs to get it right. And this isn’t the best start.