Bixby delay will see Galaxy S8 ship without Samsung's voice assistant

Galaxy S8 will ship without Samsung's voice assistant

Carly Page
@CarlyPage_
12 April 2017

Tweet
Facebook
Google plus
Send to

SAMSUNG HAS ADMITTED that its much-hyped Bixby artificial intelligence (AI) assistant won't be fully ready when the Galaxy S8 starts shipping next week.

The company confirmed in a statement to that Bixby Voice, the part of the assistant that will let you control the Galaxy S8 by barking at it, won't be available until later this spring. Bixby Vision, Home and Reminder, however, will be available at launch.

"With its intelligent interface and contextual awareness, Bixby will make your phone more helpful by assisting in completing tasks, telling you what you're looking at, learning your routine and remembering what you need to do," a Samsung spokesperson said.

"Key features of Bixby, including Vision, Home and Reminder, will be available with the global launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 on April 21. Bixby Voice will be available in the US on the Galaxy S8 later this spring.

Samsung has yet to confirm the reason for the holdup, nor how long Galaxy S8 users can expect to wait until Bixby Voice arrives. However, the Wall Street Journal reports that the delayed rollout could last until the end of May.

This setback isn't such bad news for Brits, though. Samsung confirmed last month that Bixby won't be available in the UK at launch anyway, noting that the Bixby button on the side of the S8 will act as a launcher for Bixby Home until the assistant becomes available.

Samsung told INQ in a statement that Bixby Voice will "expand to more languages globally over time," following its US launch in June, so it's unlikely the feature will make its way to UK any time soon.

Bixby, which is setting its sights on the likes of Apple's Siri and Google Assistant, will soon be available to developers, with Samsung planning to release an SDK that will allow third-party devs to make their applications and services compatible with Bixby.

What's more, Samsung said last month that it also plans to integrate Bixby into, er, all of its appliances, which means you'll be soon be able to talk to your washing machine, or something. µ