Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant can be used to perform any function on supported devices using voice commands that you can do by tapping on the screen. Want to lower the screen brightness or the volume? Just ask Bixby. That has largely been limited to system functions and native apps, though. It’s set to change later this year as Samsung has confirmed that Bixby third-party apps support will arrive in the coming months.

This isn’t the first time we are hearing that Samsung is going to open up Bixby to developers so that they can create their own apps for the assistant. Amazon has seen considerable success with this strategy for its Alexa assistant. It will be good for users as well since they will be able to do a lot more with Bixby.

Bixby third-party apps support

Samsung’s mobile division’s CEO DJ Koh confirmed today that the company will allow third-party developers to build apps for Bixby starting later this year. This will improve the assistant’s capabilities and make it more useful. It’s also unsurprising that this announcement comes a month after Samsung revealed the Galaxy Home, its first Bixby-powered smart speaker.

Koh confirmed that Samsung will release an SDK for Bixby third-party apps support in addition to an API. The former will let developers make apps with Bixby and the latter will allow Bixby to be integrated with other apps. This new software is going to be released in November at the company’s annual Samsung Developer Conference.

That’s not all that the company has in store for us at Samsung Developer Conference 2018. Koh also confirmed today that Samsung will be launching its much-awaited foldable smartphone later this year. The company will likely be unveiling the handset at SDC 2018, according to the CEO.