Bixby's voice support won't be ready when the Galaxy S8 launches

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,256   +192
Staff member

Samsung has positioned its Bixby digital assistant as the crowning jewel of the upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone. As it turns out, however, there’s one pretty significant flaw that has emerged: the fact that Bixby’s headlining feature – voice control – won’t be available when the Galaxy S8 goes on sale April 21.

The South Korean electronics giant in a statement to The Verge on Tuesday said Bixby’s voice control feature wouldn’t be available on its flagship in the US until later this spring. The spokesperson didn’t specify the reason for the delay.

Other Bixby features including Vision, Home and Reminder, Samsung confirmed, would be available on all models when the Galaxy S8 launches globally next week.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, notes that during internal tests in recent weeks, the performance of Bixby’s voice recognition in English has lagged behind that of the Korean version. As such, executives haven’t yet decided exactly when to make Bixby available in English. One source said the rollout could be pushed back until as late as the end of May.

To say that Bixby is an important part of the Galaxy S8 would be an understatement. Aside from the smartphone’s bezel-less display, the digital assistant is probably the top feature – it has its own dedicated button on the device, after all.

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"Samsung has positioned its Bixby digital assistant as the crowning jewel of the upcoming Galaxy S8".
To me, that is it's biggest put-off. Hopefully that crap can be fully disabled when I plan to upgrade to the S9 next year. I can, and want to live my life without these invasive, disembodied, digital assistant things interfering.
 
LOL, it's not even ready... They are essentially beta testing us, collecting our voice commands to complete their databases.

"Samsung has positioned its Bixby digital assistant as the crowning jewel of the upcoming Galaxy S8".
To me, that is it's biggest put-off. Hopefully that crap can be fully disabled when I plan to upgrade to the S9 next year. I can, and want to live my life without these invasive, disembodied, digital assistant things interfering.

I'm with you there, definitely have not embraced the world of voice commands. Not sure if I ever will.
I've preordered the S8+ from Best Buy to take advantage of some of the bundle deals. So if you are curious to know my personal opinions on this, and how I go about avoiding it just send me a reminder one day, after the 21st.
 
LOL, it's not even ready... They are essentially beta testing us, collecting our voice commands to complete their databases.



I'm with you there, definitely have not embraced the world of voice commands. Not sure if I ever will.
I've preordered the S8+ from Best Buy to take advantage of some of the bundle deals. So if you are curious to know my personal opinions on this, and how I go about avoiding it just send me a reminder one day, after the 21st.
Please let me know how it goes after you've used it for a bit. You can message me privately on this site but I guess you already know that.
 
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