The start of Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month and the flood of consumer news that follows could see a surprise announcement from Samsung offering users the option to use a third-party voice assistant like Google Assistant.
Citing ‘sources familiar with the company’s plans’, Variety says that plans are in place to offer third-party voice assistant support when they unveil their line of 2019 TVs.
While only Google Assistant is named, they’re far from the only player in this space with Amazon’s Alexa also a possibility to be added if the option for third-party voice assistants is on the cards.
How this integration with third-party Assistants will work with Samsung’s Bixby Assistant isn’t clear, though with the marketing push from Samsung for Bixby it’d be unlikely that Bixby would be totally supplanted by a third-party Assistant – more a partnership.
Google will again have a presence at CES in the form of an outdoor pavillion to support the announcement of new Google Assistant powered products, though they’re not expected to announce any new products themselves.
If you’ve been waiting for something like this, the upcoming range of new TVs from Samsung just got a little more attractive.
But what about Bixby!!!
Does anybody really prefer Samsung’s Bixby over Google Assistant? Is there anybody at all?
In fact, I think it would be preferable to purchase a full Android TV – with voice control over all its functions – rather than one that puts Bixby first and leaves Google Assistant as a second rate add-on.