Alongside the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus phones, Samsung has also introduced Bixby, the flagship phones' new AI assistant. While Bixby may not be breaking any grounds here nor it is the first AI assistant on the market, it does bring in some new things that other AI assistants do not have.
For instance, there is a dedicated hardware button for Bixby. Samsung did lose the home button on its Galaxy S8 but it did add a new one for Bixby. With that said, calling on Bixby is more natural for the hand unlike voicing something out or doing multiple steps to get the attention of the AI assistant.
Samsung is also upping its game when it comes to voice commands. As per Phone Arena, Bixby offers full voice control for the Galaxy S8 phones. This means that anything that can be accomplished using touchscreen can also be accomplished using voice. Users can also transition smoothly between voice and touch using Bixby.
Moreover, there is also the Bixby Vision feature or the augmented-reality image-processing side of the assistant. Basically, it works with the Galaxy S8 camera and with previously taken images. This technology is not the first of its kind but is still a high-tech addition to the AI assistant. Other companies have also offered similar features wherein the user can just point their camera at a foreign signage and have the AI translate it for them. Users can also ask the AI to recognize an object, identify a product, analyze a landmark, find out a photo's location and suggest nearby places.
Additionally, the battle of Bixby vs Siri can also be easily defined by the number of languages each of the AI assistant knows. As per Gizmodo Au, Siri can translate around 30 languages. Bixby, on the other hand, can translate about twice as many languages as Siri. With that said, as a whole, Bixby looks good on paper, although its usefulness will still vary depending on each user's needs.
