After the flop of Bixby, Samsung revolutionizes its voice assistant and renews it following the feedback and comments of its users
Big changes at home Samsung: the South Korean giant has decided to revolutionize its voice assistant, Bixby, following the feedback comments received from its users. So the fight for the best voice assistant is on again: will Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant still be able to sleep soundly?
The question of voice assistants, enhanced thanks to the use of artificial intelligence technology, is constantly open. In fact, there are many proposals, each with its own characteristics, strengths and Achilles' heels. Among the most popular are Siri, the friendly Apple assistant and Google Assistant, the friendly Big G helper available both on smartphones with Android operating system and on Mountain View devices dedicated to the home. Last, but only in terms of mention, is Alexa: for those who still don't know her, this is the voice - and brain - available on Amazon's smart devices and is also available on iOS and Android apps. Cortana, Microsoft's assistant which, like it or not, is slowly disappearing among the public's favourites, both for its poor usability and for its functionality that is not particularly outstanding compared to its competitors, is missing from the list.
Bixby, a bit of history of Samsung's assistant
Samsung's voice assistant started out with all the credentials to put its competitors to shame. Yet, due to an overly invasive presence on the South Korean company's devices, Bixby was slowly relegated to the background, earning, among other things, a reputation that is not exactly among the most flattering.
Bixby, what has changed in Samsung's assistant
To bring Bixby back into vogue, Samsung has decided to focus on two key factors: usability and accessibility. The first point on which the company has worked has been the interface: a new theme has been adopted, in line with the One UI design, with cards that scroll horizontally and no longer vertically, as was the case in the past.
Once called to work, Bixby no longer occupies the entire screen but only ⅓ of the display, thus leaving visible a good portion and the content hosted in it. The same goes for the conversation indicator: no longer an invasive icon but a pulsing bar, much smaller and discreet. A likely smart choice, given the similar choice made by Google for its own assistant only a year ago.
Bixby, when will the update arrive
Although there are still no official rumors about the release of the new version of Bixby, there are many who think that it could arrive together with the update of Samsung DeX, that is the feature that allows you to turn some of the top of the range devices into real computers, thanks to the combined use of monitor, keyboard and mouse. In this way, Bixby could expand its possibilities, becoming in effect a first-rate assistant.