From 2020, Samsung will include Bixby in all its smart home devices, including ovens and robot vacuums. The company has announced this, various South Korean media reported on the basis of a press conference in Seoul.
The digital assistant, which debuted last year on the Galaxy S8, can be found on models of TVs, washing machines and refrigerators starting this year, YonhapNews reports. The news agency mentions that Samsung wants to have Bixby in all its home devices in two years, provided they have an internet connection. The intent is for them to work together, allowing users to control multiple devices with a single command. All devices wake up when the user steps in and says, “Hey Bixby, I’m home,” says Korea Times.
The next step for Bixby is version 2.0, which should debut on the Galaxy Note 9, reports Korea Herald. Version 2.0 should include faster response times. This version should also handle natural speech better and suppress noise better.
Bixby is a further development of S Voice, the speech assistant for Samsung smartphones that has been on devices since 2012. To develop Bixby, Samsung wants to grow its AI team to a thousand people, including through acquisitions. Eighteen months ago, for example, it took over Viv Labs, a company of the founders of Siri that has been owned by Apple for eight years now.