Galaxy S8, S8+ Owners Can Now Use Bixby Voice Through Samsung’s Preview Program

Samsung has launched a preview program for Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners who want to try out Bixby Voice ahead of its official release in the U.S. At the same time, some updates for Bixby have been rolled out, suggesting that the company’s voice assistant could soon be fully functional in the country.

On Wednesday, Samsung opened the preview program to allow select Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ users to test out the Bixby Voice command features. Only those who signed up for the program will get the chance to do this. The rollout of this beta will last for a few days, so don’t be worried if you had signed up and still haven’t received the notification for the update.

Android Authority says that consumers who have signed up for the preview should update all of their Samsung-branded apps to their latest versions in the Galaxy App store before testing the voice command features. Since the preview program was opened, many users have already been reporting online of receiving the Bixby Voice notification.

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“Welcome to the Bixby Early Access Program! You are among the first to use our cutting edge service to interact with your phone with voice and get things done quickly,” the notification reads. “Bixby understands what you say and gets smarter over time. By learning how you say things and what you do most, Bixby will make your life easier. We will be relying on your stories, feedback, and ideas to shape the future of Bixby.”

Samsung announced last week that it is conducting a preview program in the United States, so Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners in the country can try the highly anticipated features of Bixby Voice that were formerly limited to South Korea only. Users chosen to be part of the beta group can now use all of the features of the Bixby button. They can also easily summon the voice assistant with just a long press on the dedicated Bixby button, as pointed out by SamMobile.

Around the same time that the early access program was launched, one user prompted SamMobile about getting several Bixby updates out of the blue. What’s interesting about what happened to the user is the fact that his device received the updates though he did not sign up for the preview program. The screenshot he shared online reveals that the updates rolled out to his smartphone were for Bixby, Bixby Wakeup, Bixby PLM and Bixby Global Action. It isn’t clear why this happened, but this could be a sign of the imminent release of Bixby Voice in the U.S.

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Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ officially started shipping in April; however, both devices did not come with all of Bixby’s features. The South Korean giant said that the reason behind the voice assistant’s delay has to do with the issues they encountered while optimizing Siri’s new rival for the English language.