PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
It was a nigh-on certainty that Samsung was going to equip its upcoming flagship phone – the Galaxy S8 – with an AI assistant and now its existence has inadvertantly been confirmed by the company’s Italian website.
Eagle-eyed spotters have scoured the latest version of Samsung’s privacy policy and under the ‘voice services’ the name ‘Bixby’ is mentioned. Bixby being one of the names that had been speculated as the identity of Samsung’s voice assistant, along with Viv and Kestra.
There aren’t any details as to what Bixby can do, but on translation the site makes it seem as though all elements of the touch interface will be controllable through voice. It had previously been reported that it would also work with a large number of third-party apps. The company will need Bixby to be powerful in order to convince people to use it over Google’s own Assistant that is also built into Android phones.
While this site makes mention of Bixby, it does not entirely rule out the possible existence of the Kestra moniker as well. It is likely that Bixby will be the name of the male-voiced assistant, with Kestra being the female. Samsung is apparently going full-out with its voice assistant, giving it a dedicated physical button on the side of the phone which has been seen in several leaked photos.
We don’t really know all too much about the Samsung Galaxy S8, but everything should be made clearer in a couple of weeks when the device is officially announced on March 29th at a launch event in London and New York.
