Samsung Announces 'Bixby 2.0' Designed for Smart Home Products Like Refrigerators and TVs

[MacRumors]

Samsung today announced the second-generation version of its Bixby voice assistant, seven months after Bixby was first unveiled ahead of the launch of the Galaxy S8.

According to Samsung, Bixby 2.0 is a "fundamental leap forward for digital assistants" and a "bold reinvention of the platform," designed with the aim of making Bixby available on "any and all devices."

Bixby 2.0 will be available on smartphones, TVs, refrigerators, home speakers, and other connected technology products. Bixby 2.0 will be "open," allowing developers to choose how users interact with Bixby in their services.

Samsung says Bixby 2.0 features enhanced natural language capabilities to support more natural commands and complex processing, so it can "really get to know and understand" who you are and who members of your family are.

Bixby, a Siri competitor, was designed to be deeply integrated within apps, differentiating it from other AI-based assistants like Siri and Cortana. Samsung ran into trouble with Bixby early on, though, and was not able to include the assistant in the English versions of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ due to performance issues.

While Bixby performed well in Korean, its English voice recognition capabilities lagged behind, and so Bixby was not added to the Galaxy S8 and S8+ models in the United States until July, three months after the devices launched.

Galaxy S8 owners have complained that Bixby can be confusing and frustrating to use, and a lack of enthusiasm for the feature has even caused Samsung to implement a feature that allows the dedicated Bixby button on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 to be disabled.

Bixby was built using technology Samsung acquired from Viv, an AI assistant that was developed by some of the creators originally responsible for Apple's Siri.

Samsung is launching a private beta program with the Bixby SDK, available for select developers.

Article Link: Samsung Announces 'Bixby 2.0' Designed for Smart Home Products Like Refrigerators and TVs

 

[iPhysicist]

This Cat is adorable! And its name is Bixby?

 

[JPack]

Seems like Bixby and Microsoft Paperclip were made for each other.

 

[mariusignorello]

Bixby 2.0: Double trouble.

 

[Knightcastle]

Bring on Siri 2.0

 

[Fassteddie]

What the "F" Apple? Step it up with Siri! Thank you! We'll be waiting.

 

[GadgetBen]

This is the problem with Samsung, they always announce new tech that simply isn't ready.

"Bixby, blow up my Samsung"

 

[kingpushup]

Do all refrigerators and TV remotes come with a new big side button? Or is that already ‘in the mail’? /s

 

[69Mustang]

Nope. Nope. Nope. Let people remap that dang button. Sammy, you really don't need an option for every Google service. Samsung Pay? Yeah, that's great. Really great. Murders Android Pay... murders all Pay's actually. Bixby? Give it the Elsa treatment: Let it go.

edit: Opinion as it relates to me. YMMV

 

[JaySoul]

Tried it on my S8, didn't like it (it wasn't good enough).

But with every major update, I'll give it a whirl - competition is good for consumers.

 

[Sheza]

A 2.0 version only a few months after the first one?

Riiiiiight

 

[69Mustang]

Bixby was built using technology Samsung acquired from Viv, an AI assistant that was developed by some of the creators originally responsible for Apple's Siri.

Hey Juli. According to multiple sources, Bixby is based on S Voice (which explains a lot actually) and not Viv. This Bixby 2.0 might however (most likely, imo) contain some Viv magic. Samsung Mobile's CTO spoke to Wired about it back in July.

Injong Rhee graciously admits the initial failings of Bixby. "The early version of this may not be completely perfect," he says, going on to underline that Viv tech will eventually come to the digital assistant, but in time. "We look forward to leveraging Viv’s technology to help drive the next generation of AI platforms, including Bixby, in our future products. We believe that taking the time to get this right is the correct approach, and have first focused our efforts on building a solid foundation for Bixby."

"Our software provides the foundation for Bixby, Viv Labs’ technology will be used for third-party expansion. Viv has developed a fundamentally new kind of AI - one that will help us usher the next generation of virtual assistants. Its technology is highly scalable, open, and smarter than today’s rule-based machine learning models, which will give developers a more capable AI," added Rhee. - Wired

 

[rjohnstone]

Nope. Nope. Nope. Let people remap that dang button. Sammy, you really don't need an option for every Google service. Samsung Pay? Yeah, that's great. Really great. Murders Android Pay... murders all Pay's actually. Bixby? Give it the Elsa treatment: Let it go.

I'm glad they finally let us simply disable the damn button with the last update. I would like a real remap option, but I'm ok with disabling it.
Bixby itself isn't all that bad. It's not as polished as Google's assistant, but it works better than Siri.

 

[ghostface147]

Bixby 1 barely works, now they want to do 2? Ok.

 

[Soccertess]

Siri is pretty useless, sure it recognizes the words, but it can't do anything. I always get... I'm sorry, I can't do that yet.

And the search results for Siri are awful. I find my self opening the chrome browser to use their search function as Siri's search result JUST SUCK!

 

[SeattleMoose]

This does poke at something that has been at best, only partially functional since its release...SIRI. This is the worst Apple product there is...period. If Bixby works as well as in the commercial, then kudos to Hamstrung. But from all accounts, it does not. My question is..why not? Apple has had 6 years to improve SIRI. Yet it is still crap. Is it now part of BEATS? Why can't tech companies get voice assistants to the point where "it just works". Coz right now....

 

[DNichter]

I am not a fan of any voice assistants, but I can't imagine this being much better than what has been released already.

 

[deanthedev]

Typical Samsung, always throwing crap at the wall hoping some of it sticks.

 

[CB1234]

Siri is pretty useless, sure it recognizes the words, but it can't do anything. I always get... I'm sorry, I can't do that yet.

And the search results for Siri are awful. I find my self opening the chrome browser to use their search function as Siri's search result JUST SUCK!

For a minute I thought that this article was about Bixby, I was mistaken…

 

[jamesrick80]

Bixby is amazing if you use it how it is met to be used. Much better than Siri.......

 

[Uofmtiger]

It’s a competitor to Siri? How do I get it to work with Apple Music, Apple Watch, and CarPlay?

 

[dominiongamma]

When will Apple release Siri 2.0 ;-) still waiting years later

 

[deanthedev]

Bixby is amazing if you use it how it is met to be used. Much better than Siri.......

You mean if you ignore the things it can’t do but only use the ones it can? Sounds pretty amazing. /s

 

[convergent]

Each of the assistants has a different strength, and what is needed is interoperability. Google is better for search. Cortana is better for planner integration. Alexa is better for shopping. Bixby is better for device functions. Siri... not better at anything.

Once I realized Bixby's thing was device functions I've been using it and liking it. Like I can hit the button and say "take a selfie" and it does it. You can also create multi step functions. This is like a voice macro engine for the device. It would be great if you could use any one assistant, and if they didn't know how to do something they could ask the other. I believe that Microsoft and Amazon are working on this.

 

[jamesrick80]

You mean if you ignore the things it can’t do but only use the ones it can? Sounds pretty amazing. /s

Yeah because Google assistant takes care of the rest. Bixby actually knows your device and can do things like change the settings, turn on Bluetooth etc.