Small part of Samsung assistant Bixby works via trick on Galaxy S7

A small part of the functionality of Samsung’s digital assistant Bixby also appears to work on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Samsung will release the service along with the Galaxy S8 later this month. It is unknown if it will officially work on the S7 as well.

The installation of Bixby can be done by installing the launcher of the S8 and placing the installation file of Bixby on the device, according to a topic on XDA-Developers. This only concerns the cards of the digital assistant that are similar to Google Now and appear on the screen to the left of the home screen.

Other Bixby features, such as in-camera object recognition and control of the interface via voice commands, are missing from the version running on the Galaxy S7. The app also seems unstable, because it closes itself for many people.

Samsung presented Bixby a week before it announced the Galaxy S8. It is obvious that the assistant will later work with more smartphones, because the manufacturer has big plans for the assistant. Samsung wants to make Bixby the default voice control for all kinds of Samsung 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.

It is now also clear that Google’s VR platform Daydream does not work on the S8. The site VRHeads tried to sideload the app for that, but that doesn’t work. The site estimates that if developers allow root access on the S8, Daydream will also be installable. Samsung is currently focusing on its own VR platform Gear VR.