Samsung’s next flagship device, Galaxy S8, is scheduled to launch by the end of March 2017. One of the significant features which will make it distinctive from rest of its phones would be the native voice-assistant ‘Bixby’. Yeah, we’re aware of the phone’s AI capabilities. But, adding up to our anticipations, reports today revealed that the assistant will support up to eight languages at launch.
These languages will include Korean, English, and Chinese language, among others. One of the officials for the company shedding light upon the matter said,
We brought together the language data accumulated by Samsung Electronics and the excellent natural language recognition capability of Viva Labs acquired in October.
This move from Samsung might come as a huge blow to Google Assistant, which is planning to expand its reign in the Android ecosystem. It provides limited language support to its users, other than English. Google’s messaging app Allo offers five language options, namely English, German, Hindi, Japanese, and Portuguese whereas the Pixel lineup supports only English and German. The support for more languages in Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant gives customers a chance to choose one suitable to their needs.
Though Google’s AI holds an upper hand in Android integration which might not be possible for Samsung at the time of release. Samsung is combining Bixby with some distinctive features so as to take on Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. Prior leaks unveiled the smartphone to be packed with a fourth physical button dedicated towards instant access of Bixby.
Moreover, the Viv-powered AI assistant will have its presence across all of Samsung’s apps which come pre-installed on the Galaxy S8. The same could also be linked to third-party apps to perform functions similar to Google Photos and Apple’s standard Photos app.
The company is expected to announce the platform along with the release of Galaxy S8 on March 29. Samsung’s successful roll out of this smartphone will help the company regain customers trust it lost the previous year. The Korean giant is trying its best to provide a high-end premium smartphone to users and now plans to supervise the battery sourcing and assembling process the most.
