The Galaxy S9 and the S9+ weren't the only products Samsung bought to the table at MWC 2019. Along with the two flagships, Samsung also announced the release of Bixby 2, an upgraded version of their in-house virtual assistant Bixby. DJ Koh, Samsung’s mobile chief, told members of the press that Bixby 2.0 would launch as soon as August. It is around the time the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is expected to be released. We've already seen hints about the second version of Bixby being in the works, based on some now confirmed rumours.
“For Bixby 1.0, we focused on a fast rollout to the market. Expanding the ecosystem was difficult. So Bixby 2.0 will strengthen this aspect, and we are working intensely,” Koh said. “In December last year, we began taking applications for the public beta version. So far over 800 companies have applied and are testing it.” He then added, “at this speed, I think we will be able to unveil Bixby 2.0 when we launch the Galaxy Note 9.”
Bixby 2 is expected to support the array of smart devices that Samsung unveiled at CES 2018. One of the features that sets Bixby behind the Google Assistant is lack of voice recognition. Samsung appears to have addressed the issue with Bixby 2, which brings Google Assistant like voice recognition and capabilities to differentiate between the voices of different people.
Bixby 2 will allow you to talk to your appliances
“Bixby won’t be tied to a specific device. The ultimate goal is to make it ubiquitous,” said Eui-Suk Chung, the executive vice president and head of software and AI.“Samsung is unique in that it has TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, phones, PCs, and almost every consumer electronics. We also make the module chips that goes in them needed in IoT (Internet of Things). AI speaker will also be one among them.”
The update to Bixby reaffirms Samsung's faith in their virtual assistant. However, Samsung still has a lot of ground to cover, as the Google Assistant is already miles ahead of competition and judging by the number of resources Google is allocating to the Assistant, we don't see that changing anytime soon.
News Source: ZDnet
About the author: Anil has been a lifelong tech enthusiast and has worked a variety of jobs before joining the Wccftech team in 2018. His primary responsibilities include reporting on all things in the Android and mobile gaming sphere. He is also passionate about PC hardware, obscure music and internet culture. He also has a thing for addressing himself in third person as an exercise in self-awareness.
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