Samsung Bixby Update Flaunts a Skill that Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant Had—What's New?

Samsung Bixby's update is bringing features that bring it closer to other counterparts, such as Apple's Siri and Google Assistant.

Yes, Bixby is still alive and kicking, flaunting new skills that improve the overall user experience.

Although the virtual assistant exclusive for the devices of the South Korean giant is not as popular as Siri, Google Assistant, and even Amazon's Alexa, Samsung still cares about it, as per XDA Developers.

During the early days of the virtual assistant, Samsung flagship phones even had a Bixby button in them, which other Apple's iPhone or Google's Pixel never had.

The latest update, which SamMobile first spotted, proved that Bixby is not going anywhere.

Samsung Bixby Update: Google Assistant Feature

The latest update introduced a significant design change for Bixby, which Google Assistant users will find familiar. Upon summoning the virtual assistant, it will no longer take up the whole screen like what Siri does.

The result of a user's query will only pop up a more compact tile prompt below the interface, similar to Google's virtual assistant. Notably, the answer only shows up for at least 15 seconds. However, the default setting could be adjusted to a longer time, if a user prefer it.

Google Assistance recently figured in a controversy after an Indian news outlet revealed that the tech giant admitted that their virtual assistant records audio even when it is not summoned.

Samsung Bixby Update: Siri Feature

Meanwhile, Bixby is getting another familiar feature. This time around, it is a skill that Apple's Siri sports — a personalized recommendation function.

Bixby users will only need to enable the "Personalized Bixby" option in the updated settings page. The fresh feature works by collecting the preferences of the user to provide relevant recommendations.

Samsung Bixby Update: Additional Features

As per GSMArena, Samsung's virtual assistant is further making the setup process of Bixby easier and less annoying.

The update lets go of the voice training part of the initial setup, which requires its users to shout the magic word "Hi Bixby" at least five times.

Although Bixby could still recognize your voice, it is now an optional feature. So, by default, users will not be asked to say hello to the virtual assistant for a couple of times.

Elsewhere, a Samsung 3D virtual assistant made rounds on the internet, which raised speculations that Bixby is giving way to the more advanced counterpart supposedly called Sam.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Teejay Boris