Samsung Electronics on Friday started rolling out a broad range of mobile services for Bixby, the company’s new artificial intelligence (AI) assistant which was commercialized with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus earlier this year. Apart from updating the main Bixby app and distributing Bixby PLM, the South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) also started rolling out Bixby Global Action, Bixby Wakeup, and Bixby Dictation to its latest two flagships around the world. Users in the United Kingdom, India, Germany, South Africa, and the Netherlands have all confirmed they already received the new apps, though Bixby Voice is still unavailable on their devices. More countries are presumed to be part of the rollout as well, though its exact scope remains unclear.
The current state of affairs indicates that Samsung is currently in the process of distributing the assets needed for its digital companion to work and will only activate it through a server-side update at a later date. The Seoul-based tech giant recently updated its Contacts app with support for Bixby, indicating that its global release may be coming in the near future. The service itself is currently only available in the firm’s home country and the United States and was already delayed on several occasions due to development issues related to the lack of big data that Samsung could feed to Bixby in an effort to help it learn and evolve in a swifter manner. It’s currently unclear whether the latest turn of events means that Samsung is close to launching Bixby Voice with support for British English, German, and official languages of other countries which recently started receiving the aforementioned updates, or if the consumer electronics manufacturer is only seeking to release the American English variant of the assistant in more territories.
Bixby is also expected to be an integral part of the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 which is said to come with a physical button for activating the assistant, much like the Galaxy S8 lineup. The phone maker may reveal more details related to its plans for Bixby next week when it’s set to officially announce the successor to the Galaxy Note 7 which should be available for purchase by late September.
