Over the years, Samsung has changed how it used to force Bixby on Galaxy users. However, the company never stopped improving its AI-powered digital voice assistant. Today, Samsung announced that Bixby is getting faster and more intelligent, offering improved language recognition capabilities and greater control over the user's mobile experience.
Bixby now remembers previous conversations to offer better answers and continuity
Bixby now supports a custom wake-up phrase, and users can customize it through Bixby's Settings section. Moreover, the digital voice assistant can work seamlessly as it remembers its previous conversations with the user. It can now better understand the user's intent and answer better for follow-up questions.
For example, you can ask it to play music depending on the exercise you asked to start in Samsung Health. Another scenario is where you ask Bixby about a sportsperson and then ask a follow-up question, “what is their height?” The voice assistant will return with an answer about that sportsperson.
Bixby is also getting improved on-device AI support. It can run some key commands without an active internet connection. You can ask it to take a screenshot or turn on the flashlight. This on-device AI support is currently available for stock Samsung apps and supports English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Korean languages.
Bixby Text Call is now widely available for users who speak English
Bixby Text Call, similar to Google's Call Screen, lets users answer calls by typing messages. It converts a user's text into audio and communicates to the caller on the user's behalf and vice versa. This nifty feature is now available for English users. Bixby Text Call is available on the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 4, and Galaxy Z Flip 4, running One UI 5.1 (One UI 4.1.1 for Korean users).
Users can customize their Bixby Text Call voice using the Bixby Custom Voice Creator. They can record different on-screen sentences, which Bixby then uses to analyze and create an AI-generated voice. This feature is currently available in South Korea, and Samsung plans to bring it beyond the Phone app in the future. This feature will be available on all Galaxy S23 series phones soon.
With a software update, all new Bixby features will start rolling out to compatible smartphones and tablets later this month.
YoungJip Kim, Executive VP and Head of the AI Team at Samsung MX, said, “When Samsung first launched Bixby as a voice assistant, it was part of a vision to create a human-to-machine interface that makes life easier and can advance over time with Samsung Galaxy innovation. Today, we introduce updates to build a more intelligent interface that is proactive and adaptive, giving people greater control over their mobile experience.“
