• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechPointCloud

How Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Will Boost Its Bixby Digital Assistant

By
Aaron Pressman
Aaron Pressman
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Aaron Pressman
Aaron Pressman
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 20, 2017, 11:08 AM ET

Samsung plans to offer a unique smartphone feature to help its new voice controlled, digital assistant named Bixby to stand out from Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and the Google Assistant on Android.

The company’s upcoming Galaxy S8 phone—and future devices—will have a dedicated button on the side to trigger Bixby, Samsung said on Monday. Based on technology Samsung acquired last year from Viv Labs, Bixby will also include common features from its competitors, such as letting users interact with apps or make phones calls by talking to their phone.

The Galaxy S8, which will be unveiled at the end of the month in New York, will have a “subset” of preinstalled apps that can be completely controlled via Bixby. Samsung also plans to release a set of software tools to allow third-party developers to integrate Bixby into their apps.

“We do have a bold vision of revolutionizing the human-to-machine interface, but that vision won’t be realized overnight,” senior vice president Injong Rhee wrote in a blog post. “Ambition takes time.”

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Samsung claimed Bixby will be able to control apps more extensively than other digital assistants. Apple (AAPL) last year added software tools for third-party apps to support Siri, while Amazon (AMZN) has long allowed outside software developers to add functions (or in Amazon parlance: “skills”) to Alexa, though in a more limited way. Google (GOOGL) has taken somewhat of a hybrid approach with what it calls actions for Google Assistant.

“Most existing agents currently support only a few selected tasks for an application and therefore confuse users about what works or what doesn’t work by voice command,” Rhee wrote. “The completeness property of Bixby will simplify user education on the capability of the agent, making the behaviors of the agent much more predictable.”

But third-party app developers will have to decide to add Bixby support. Since Apple announced Siri would work with non-Apple apps last year, few have added such support. On an iPhone with dozens of common apps installed, only six offered Siri support, including LinkedIn, Facebook (FB), and Uber.

Bixby will also be better at knowing the context around a command than other assistants and will be able to understand a greater range of different commands, Samsung said.

Samsung also promised eventually to add the artificially-intelligent helper to all of its appliances, from air conditioners to refrigerators.

About the Author
By Aaron Pressman
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

InnovationVenture Capital
This Khosla Ventures-backed startup is using AI to personalize cancer care
By Allie GarfinkleDecember 4, 2025
1 hour ago
AIEye on AI
Companies are increasingly falling victim to AI impersonation scams. This startup just raised $28M to stop deepfakes in real time
By Sharon GoldmanDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago
Jensen Huang
SuccessBillionaires
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admits he works 7 days a week, including holidays, in a constant ‘state of anxiety’ out of fear of going bankrupt
By Jessica CoacciDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago
Ted Pick
BankingData centers
Morgan Stanley considers offloading some of its data-center exposure
By Esteban Duarte, Paula Seligson, Davide Scigliuzzo and BloombergDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago
Zuckerberg
EnergyMeta
Meta’s Zuckerberg plans deep cuts for Metaverse efforts
By Kurt Wagner and BloombergDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago
Pichai
Big TechAlphabet
Alphabet’s AI chips are a potential $900 billion ‘secret sauce’
By Ryan Vlastelica and BloombergDecember 4, 2025
2 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Economy
Two months into the new fiscal year and the U.S. government is already spending more than $10 billion a week servicing national debt
By Eleanor PringleDecember 4, 2025
7 hours ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos commit $102.5 million to organizations combating homelessness across the U.S.: ‘This is just the beginning’
By Sydney LakeDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Ford workers told their CEO 'none of the young people want to work here.' So Jim Farley took a page out of the founder's playbook
By Sasha RogelbergNovember 28, 2025
6 days ago
placeholder alt text
North America
Anonymous $50 million donation helps cover the next 50 years of tuition for medical lab science students at University of Washington
By The Associated PressDecember 2, 2025
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Scott Bessent calls the Giving Pledge well-intentioned but ‘very amorphous,’ growing from ‘a panic among the billionaire class’
By Nick LichtenbergDecember 3, 2025
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
AI
IBM CEO warns there’s ‘no way’ hyperscalers like Google and Amazon will be able to turn a profit at the rate of their data center spending
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezDecember 3, 2025
1 day ago
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.