Samsung Terminating Apple Siri Rival S Voice Virtual Assistant In June

Samsung is terminating its older voice assistant called S Voice in June 1 this year.

The news, which Samsung announced via a support page entry that was reported by Sammobile, isn't really surprising considering how the company already has another voice assistant, Bixby.

First released in 2012 with the Galaxy S3 handset, S Voice was meant to help Galaxy smartphone users make the most of their devices, and was also meant to give Samsung device users an alternative to Apple's Siri, The Verge noted.

While it cannot compete with the likes of Bixby, Google Assistant or Siri in terms of capabilities, S Voice was actually able to do things that smartphone users during its time would've found helpful.

After launching S Voice, users will be able to ask it to do certain things like calling certain people from the contacts list, setting reminders and more via voice commands. The assistant can also be tasked to tell the time, search for certain things on the internet, launch a navigation app with instructions going to a certain place, and so on.

S Voice can be found working in various Samsung handsets, including flagships Galaxy S3, 4, S5, S6, S6 edge; phablets Galaxy Note FE, Galaxy Note 2, 3, 4, 5; and the midrange Galaxy A3, A5, A7, A8, and A9. It can also be found on the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, Galaxy W, Galaxy Tab 4, Galaxy Tab 4 8.0/10.1, Galaxy Tab S8.4 and S10.5. Samsung stopped including S Voice on models starting with Galaxy S8.

What happens if it's discontinued?

Starting June 1, S Voice will be discontinued and will stop working on all devices it is found on. Those who try to command it to do something will be given a reply that goes “I’m unable to process your request. Try again later.”

The discontinuation won't affect the performance of affected devices listed above. These devices will still continue to function as normal, but with the exception of the S Voice assistant not working properly anymore. Those who used S Voice on a regular basis might be able to install Google Assistant on their devices as an alternative.