Samsung Galaxy S8's Bixby Voice Assistant May Launch In June, Report Says

Samsung’s Bixby virtual assistant was a touted part of the Galaxy S8, but it initially missed being part of the flagship smartphone’s April launch. However, Samsung will soon be bringing the full version of Bixby to Galaxy users. Bixby is expected to launch by late June in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reported.

For Samsung users, Bixby is the Galaxy’s equivalent of similar voice assistant programs like Apple’s Siri and Google’s Assistant. With the service, which launched in Korea earlier this month, users can use Bixby to get information for topics like news, local locations and the weather.

Read: The Galaxy S8's Dedicated Bixby Button Can Be Remapped Using An App

While the Galaxy S8 was well-received by critics, the initial lack of Bixby voice control was a noticeable omission. Samsung considered Bixby essential enough to the phone to give it a dedicated physical button, but at launch, only secondary Bixby features like Reminder and Vision were available. The Journal said part of the reason for Bixby’s voice feature delay was because the service had difficulty understanding English syntax and language.

During the Galaxy S8’s launch, Samsung touted several lofty goals and features for Bixby as a platform. Samsung wants to make Bixby an integral part of the Galaxy ecosystem by integrating the service through apps and other Google services. In an onstage demonstration, Samsung showed Bixby’s ability to understand longer requests with multiple contextual questions.

So far, Samsung has taken a loose approach with Bixby’s eventual release date. In April, Samsung said Bixby would be coming sometime during the spring. Power users previously figured out a way to reprogram the S8’s dedicated Bixby button and have it perform other functions, but earlier this month, Samsung chose to patch the loophole.

As competition increases in the voice assistant field, it remains to be seen how much of an impact Bixby can have with consumers. Amazon’s Alexa remains the standard to beat among tech companies as the voice assistant powers the online retailer’s Echo devices and has expanded to areas including home appliances and TVs.

Elsewhere, Google’s Assistant is slowly expanding to smartphones from its Home assistant device. Apple’s Siri hasn’t made similarly deep inroads into the home from iPhones yet, but the company is rumored to be debuting an Echo-like home speaker at its Worldwide Developers Conference next month.

Read: What Features Does Samsung's Bixby AI Virtual Assistant Have?

As for Samsung, the company has typically been aggressive about launching its own exclusive services in the past. But while the company has wanted to launch a similar Bixby ecosystem that could expand into areas like home appliances, Bixby’s continued launch struggles for the U.S. could be a potential hurdle for the platform’s longer-term ambitions.