Samsung Galaxy S8 to feature voice assistant connecting everything

By Park Sae-jin Posted : March 21, 2017, 14:22 Updated : March 21, 2017, 16:00

[Courtesy of Samsung]


Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S8 features a powerful artificial intelligence (AI)-based voice assistant feature "Bixby" which would connect Samsung devices together.

"Bixby is Samsung's first intelligent interface," Samsung's mobile communications division senior vice president Rhee In-jong said in a statement uploaded onto the company's Newsroom website. "It would open a new way of communicating with a smartphone."

Since last year, rumors about Samsung's voice assistant feature being added to its smartphone have spread as its rivals -- Apple, Google and Amazon -- already have rolled out their own AI-based voice assistants many years ago and have become the leaders in the field.

Since its acquisition of Viv Labs, an AI research company, Samsung has indicated its AI assistant is very near.

Samsung said S8 would have a button dedicated to Bixby on its left side. Rhee pointed out that users will be able to intuitionally use the assistant feature by just pressing the button. For example, a user had to open an address book app to look up a phone number and press a call button to make a phone call. But with Bixby, all the user has to do is ordering the assistant to make the call.

Samsung plans to expand Bixby's service starting with S8. "Bixby will be applied to every Samsung devices in the future," said Rhee. "Bixby will be the center of evolution of Samsung's software and service."

The smartphone maker also unveiled a teaser image (poster) for S8, to be introduced at a media conference on March 30. The poster carries a Korean slogan reading "Completion and a New Start" with a man standing next to a smartphone-shaped door which leads to space. Samsung is expected to receive reservations from April 7 to 17.

Park Sae-jin  = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
 
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