Samsung’s Bixby Assistant will not support voice features on the Galaxy S8

At the global launch of the Galaxy S8 and S8 + on April 21, the key features of Bixby, including Vision, Home and Reminder, will work, but not the voice. Bixby’s goal is to make the user experience easier on Galaxy smartphones.
Bixby, Samsung’s new digital assistant Galaxy S8 will not be available at launch. In the official announcement of the Galaxy S8 and S8 +, Samsung claimed Bixby as the signature feature of the new flagship smartphones. Axios reports that key features of Bixby, including Vision, Home and Reminder, will work at launch but not voice.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 + were launched on March 29 and are currently available for pre-order. The smartphones will go on sale from April 21, but with limited Bixby functionality. Samsung says the Bixby Galaxy smartphone aims to make the user experience easier, but one of its key features has been delayed. Samsung has said that Bixby Voice will be available at a later stage without a specific availability date.
With Bixby, Samsung is taking a direct shot at the growing popularity of AI assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. While Google Assistant already exists on the Galaxy S8, Samsung has decided to launch its own assistant. The reason for the delay in the voice feature is not disclosed, but it is worth noting that Bixby only supports English and Korean at launch.
Bixby shows Samsung’s greater software ambition to move away from Google’s stock Android experience. With the Bixby delayed, it raises the question of whether Samsung is really capable of providing a compelling software experience on its rather superior hardware.