Samsungs Voice Assistant Bixby is a notably missing feature from the Galaxy S8/S8+ launch, but it’s finally rolling out to users, at least if you’re in Korea.
The update to enable Bixby, and finally give some utility to the hardware button on the side of the Galaxy S8/S8+ handsets is rolling out to users in Korea reports ZDNet. The update began rolling out at 1pm KST on Monday (2pm AEST 1st May), and at this stage there have been no plans announced regarding further markets.
Bixby as it stands has little utility in most markets where the Galaxy S8 and S8+ have been released. In theory, Bixby is supposed to be more of a phone assistant than voice assistant, helping you to perform tasks on your phone, though Samsung intends to have home automation and more down the track.
Bixby currently is only supported by a handful of Samsung apps, though an SDK will be released to developers to integrate Bixby functions into their own apps. Samsung hasn’t had great success with getting support for their features included in third party apps, but perhaps this could be the gateway.
We’ll likely see more about a launch of Bixby in further markets in the coming months, hopefully in time for the Galaxy S8 launch later this year.
