Almost all major mobile phone operating systems (for that matter even PCs and laptops) these days come with their own virtual assistants. Microsoft has Cortana. Apple has Siri. Amazon has Alexa. Google has Assistant. Now Samsung is going to have its own virtual assistant called Bixby. A few months ago I wrote about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 coming with its own universal voice assistant called Bixby.
In this Samsung newsroom blog post Injong Rhee has elaborated how Bixby will help you contextually, although, the author of this Verge blog post is quite cynical about the capabilities of the voice assistant or the voice agent. This is what the Verge author has to say:
Samsung’s approach to an AI assistant (or “agent,” as the company likes to call them) is a bit different than what you or I might be used to from Siri or Cortana. Instead of being a database that you fire questions at or tell to do specific things, Bixby is meant to be a helper on your device, to make it easier to access to accomplish the litany of tasks that modern gadgets such as smartphones are capable of. A less charitable interpretation might be that Bixby exists to solve one of the most difficult challenges in all of tech: make Samsung’s own poorly designed software and interfaces easier to use.
The above Samsung newsroom blog post says that the Bixby voice assistant will evolve according to the way the user uses it. The three main highlights of the voice assistant are:
- Completeness: In a Bixby-enabled app, almost every function that can be performed by touch commands can be performed by the voice assistant.
- Context awareness: Bixby will automatically know which application you are working in and then will accordingly respond to your voice commands.
- Cognitive tolerance: As the repository of your voice commands increases, you will also be able to use different variations of your voice commands so that you don’t have to remember the exact commands.
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