Love using Bixby? Maybe don’t update to Android Pie on your Galaxy S9
Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ owners who love using Bixby for controlling various aspects of the phone might want to hold off from updating to Android Pie. As one of our readers pointed out, Bixby 2.0 on Android Pie on the Galaxy S9 fails to understand many commands that worked with Bixby 1.0. And it turns out that it’s Bixby 2.0 to blame and not the new Android version. The same commands fail on a Galaxy Note 9 running Oreo as well.
Bixby 2.0 fails at stuff that worked with Bixby 1.0
Samsung made a big deal out of Bixby 2.0 at the Galaxy Note 9 launch, showcasing how the virtual assistant can now have more natural conversations and perform tasks like ordering an Uber purely through voice commands. But while our Note 8 on Oreo can pull up the Uber app when asked, the Note 9 fails to do it. So does the S9+ on Android Pie. Other commands we tested included asking Bixby to update our apps, show YouTube subscriptions, check for a software update, and enable Dolby Atmos, and it fails to perform them all. We admit none of us here at SamMobile use Bixby a lot, and we were surprised when we tested things out.
Now, we initially thought that this might be because Samsung hasn’t made Bixby 2.0 servers fully operational yet. It can’t complete some of the tasks that Samsung showed at the Note 9 event, like showing us what concerts are playing in Brooklyn, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be able to do things the previous version of Bixby did without hiccups. The Galaxy Note 9 has also been out on the market for nearly four months, so it’s quite a poor showing from Samsung, especially when its assistant was always chalked up to be all about letting you locally control smartphone functions.
So if you love using Bixby Voice to perform various actions on your Galaxy S9 or S9+, you might want to hold off from updating to Android Pie. However, you might be on Oreo for a long time, since there’s no telling when Bixby 2.0 will start being truly useful. And with Android Pie bringing so much to Galaxy devices (and without any bugs), it may be tough to choose between the update and having Bixby actually following your orders.
Have you had issues with Bixby on a Galaxy S9 after updating to Pie (the beta or final version) that you didn’t have on Android Oreo?
Hat tip to o0MHJ0o!
- Model: SM-G960F
- Dimensions: 147.7 x 68.7 x 8.5mm
- Display: 5.8” (146.5mm) Super AMOLED
- CPU: Exynos 9810
- Camera: 12 MP, CMOS OIS (F1.5/F2.4)
- Model: SM-G965F
- Dimensions: 157.7 x 73.8 x 8.5 mm
- Display: 6.2” (158.1mm) Super AMOLED
- CPU: Exynos 9810
- Camera: 12 MP, CMOS Dual OIS (F1.5/F2.4) & Telephoto: 12MP AF F2.4)
23 Comments
Sign in »23
Leave a Reply
My Voice Wakup just works sometimes. Most times it simply does not work when i say Hi Bixby
Just updated to Pie. It really bothers me that “Turn on mobile data” and “Turn off mobile data” doesn’t work with Bixby voice! I used that a lot. but the whole UI is really better.
Don’t use it. Disabled it actually. Want to remap that button for Google assistant as it’s far superior. I love Samsung’s own swing on everything that’s why I buy their phones but something’s they should just leave to Google. I was hoping for the galaxy watch to be on wear os too.
I agree and I have disabled the Bixby button and have remapped it to open GA. Love their phones and some software but I don’t like Bixby and was disappointed the new Galaxy Watch wasn’t WearOS. I’m loving my new Fossil Q Explorist (gen 4) so far over the past 3 weeks paired up with my Note 8.
Simple solution, stop using Bixby and just use Google Assistant because Samsung clearly has no idea how to make a working “assistant” software for devices. I use Google Assistant all the time and it’s far superior. I love Samsung’s phones (Note series specifically) for hardware and some software but Bixby is just absolute garbage! This is partly why I opted for a WearOS watch instead of the Galaxy Watch and now my Gear S3 Frontier has been retired because S Voice for example was annoying AF so I disabled it and I hate BIxby on my phone so Galaxy Watch… Read more »
Google Assistant does different things than Bixby. Google Assistant is great for things OUTSIDE of your phone. Bixby is great for things internal to your phone.
Want to search for something on the web? Use GA.
Want to take a photo, apply a filter, post it to social media with a predetermined caption at a predetermined time several hours from now? Use Bixby.
Point taken but when I’ve tried using Bixby for some stuff I didn’t like it and I don’t use it for things like take photo, apply filter all at a predetermined time, etc… I do those manually anyway which I prefer to do manually so for me GA works better for my needs but you are right that they do different things. GA will open apps (which I use sometimes), will call contacts and search web so that’s why for me I prefer GA and about all I need from an “assistant”. Too each their own but it’s sad to… Read more »
I’m only new to Samsung phones with S9 plus. Everything I’ve done so far it can understand me for what I want to do. However when I asked to switch off Dolby Atmos as it was on already, it kept asking me if it wanted me to switch off my phone! LOL. I said yes and it did switch it off!! I was very impressed it could do that even though it was the wrong thing. I’m sure that Bixby needs to have some things fixed. I can be patient and wait for this as already it can do a… Read more »
Mr. Abhijeet;
Can you say to Samsung that this problem is exist?
Maybe Samsung fix this problem.
Oh yes, noticed this “downgrade” as well. For example my favorite “weather forecast” which is working great but results are showed only in Fahrenheits even living in Europe and want results in Celsius as with Bixby 1.x. Therefore my new command is Hi Bixby => weather forecast in celsius which working great but little bit funny 😀
ah yes I saw this too. For a minute I thought it was suddenly very hot in Germany!! haha! I also ask the weather and say “in celsius” at the end of the question and it will give celsius!! You are right! This is a good temporary solution.
Add a quick command to auto change all weather forecast requests to celsius.
>>>The same commands fail on a Galaxy Note 9 running Oreo as well.
I experience this all the time on the Note 9 so I’ve stopped expecting anything out of Bixby. Tries to book a hotel or Uber ride – I guess she wants me out of the house so that she can break in.
😂😂😂😂👍
Thanks guys! Samsung told me on beta feedback that the stable release would return them. I’ve always said Bixby showed promise on 1.0
But this is a massive step back!
They clearly had no idea and were just firing blindly when replying to you, since Bixby 2.0 on Oreo on a Note 9 is as bad. Rather sad.
My wife tried some of the suggested commands here on her S9 plus and they all worked fine. I wonder did some people have a glitch in the update maybe. I also tried them on my Note9 (on Oreo of course) and all the commands have worked properly, however I use Bixby a lot so maybe it had learned my commands as I did give it some training..
For me as someone who hasn’t used Bixby much, it fails on 2.0 but does fine on 1.0. Too many failed commands, to be honest, like not being able to check for a software update. The way it’s just doing a Google search for that kind of stuff, i wonder if Google asked Samsung to do it deliberately for some time as part of their partnership, haha.
I works on my note 9
Yeah, I noticed this.
S9 Pie update now out in Turkey and Netherlands !
We added those to our list a few hours back 😛
https://www.sammobile.com/2018/12/24/official-galaxy-s9-android-pie-update-countries-list
Bixby 2.0 on the Note 9 works perfect for me