Samsung presents its own digital assistant Bixby for Galaxy S8

Samsung has presented its digital assistant Bixby. The manufacturer also confirms that it will present the Galaxy S8 later this month and that it will have a button on the side to activate the new function.

Bixby will listen to voice commands and be able to perform all functions in apps that are possible via the regular interface, Samsung says. In addition, the manufacturer claims that Bixby is aware of the context in the app and that it can also perform tasks if users do not pronounce the commands correctly.

The digital assistant will work on some of the apps on the Galaxy S8, the manufacturer says. Which those are, Samsung has not yet announced. At a later date, the phone maker will present an SDK to give developers the opportunity to integrate Bixby into apps. It is unknown when that SDK will be released.

Bixby is a further development of the digital assistant from Viv Labs, a company that was acquired by Samsung last year. The founders of Viv Labs previously came up with Siri, which was purchased by Apple and integrated into its devices.

Samsung does not only want to integrate Bixby into smartphones, but later also make it work with other devices. Since the digital assistant is an online service, an internet connection and electronics to pick up voice commands are enough to integrate Bixby. As a result, customers with Samsung air conditioners or refrigerators should also be able to use Bixby in the future.

Samsung will present the Galaxy S8 next week, the manufacturer has confirmed in Bixby’s announcement. Then it will probably also show what the digital assistant will look like in practice; Samsung has not released any footage of Bixby.