Samsung elevates Bixby with new features like on-device voice processing

Bixby will now be able to understand context and remember previous conversations

Samsung’s Bixby has always fallen short of industry-leading voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Google Assistant. Samsung is now looking to change that by introducing a major new update to Bixby that aims to make the assistant smarter and improve its performance.

With the new on-device mode, Bixby is able to recognize and process commands without an active internet connection. In addition, Bixby is set to gain support for a custom wake-up phrase, which means users can now select a personalized hot word of their choice to trigger the smart assistant.

Further, similar to Google Pixel’s call screening, Samsung is rolling out support for Bixby Text Call in English. Up until now, the feature, which lets you type what you want to say on a call, was limited to South Korean. With the release of One UI 5.1, the feature now works in English as well. It also allows you to customize Bixby’s voice for calls, alongside support for recording your own voice, which can then be applied to Bixby. It’s worth noting that the custom voice option is still limited to South Korean, while the regular Text Call option has expanded to English.

Furthermore, Bixby will now understand context and remember previous conversations, making it easier for users to interact with the voice assistant. For example, “Bixby users can first launch a workout on Samsung Health and then ask Bixby to play music that best suits that exercise by saying “Play music for this workout,” wrote Samsung.

Samsung says that the updates will be available for Samsung Galaxy users in February through a software update. The exact timing and availability of the updates may vary by user and market.