Samsung’s new virtual assistant, Bixby, is a different sort of thing than what you’re used to. Where Siri, Google, and Alexa are focused on collecting and understanding information out on the internet and then answering your questions about it, Bixby is trying to help you use your own phone. Samsung’s goal is to make it so that if you don’t want to, you don’t have to touch your device at all — “anything you can do with touch, you can do with voice” is the common refrain we’ve heard from them.
Bixby is built on way more simplistic pitch. It actually consists of three different components that are all interrelated.
BIXBY VOICE: TALK INSTEAD OF TOUCH
This is the headline feature for Bixby, and we know that it can work in at least the following Samsung apps: phone, messaging, settings, camera, reminder, contacts, and gallery. In those apps, instead of trying to find the thing you want, you can just ask Bixby to do it for you.
BIXBY VISION: AUGMENTED REALITY
The part of Bixby we did get to test a bit was the Vision aspect. It’s essentially an augmented reality camera that can identify objects in real time and then search for them on various services. You can launch it directly in the camera app or from Bixby Home.
BIXBY HOME: YET ANOTHER PANE OF WIDGETS
When you swipe over from your home screen or hit the Bixby button, you’ll get taken to Bixby home. It’s a vertically scrolling list of a bunch of information that Bixby can interact with. You’ll find stuff like weather, fitness activity, buttons for controlling your smart home gadgets, and more.
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