Samsung Will Finally Let Developers Have Access To Bixby SDK, API

Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant hasn’t been a huge hit with consumers, but the South Korean company isn’t giving up. Samsung has revealed that it will finally let third-party app developers have access to Bixby this November, which could make the AI platform a whole lot smarter.

Samsung mobile division CEO DJ Koh revealed to CNBC in an interview that they will release the software development kit (SDK) and the application programming interface (API) of Bixby during Samsung’s Developer Conference this November. The SDK allows developers to create apps with Bixby, while the API enables developers to integrate Bixby into their apps.

Opening Bixby to third-party developers could drastically help Samsung’s voice assistant to be more useful and finally encourage more people to use it. Amazon’s Alexa is now accessible to more than 30,000 apps, while Google Assistant is estimated to be compatible with around 3,000 apps, as pointed out by VentureBeat. Samsung has a lot of catching up to do and making Bixby accessible to developers would definitely help with that. Bixby will also continue to grow moving forward, which is something that Samsung is expecting to happen.

“Opening the ecosystem in November, then this baby (Bixby) will grow,” Koh said during the interview. “So I do not want to see just six months or nine months performance, no. Because this is like a long journey; it's just starting because with the new Bixby embedded in the Note 9, a new baby was born.”

Allowing developers to access Bixby’s SDK and API is also important in making sure that Samsung’s Galaxy Home smart speaker will be ready to take on the Amazon Echo, Google Home and the Apple HomePod. The Bixby-powered Galaxy Home smart speaker was revealed alongside the Galaxy Note 9 last month, but Samsung didn’t provide any information about its release and pricing. However, Koh did tell CNBC that the device will have a “competitive, affordable price.”

The Samsung Galaxy Home is equipped with six speakers and a subwoofer. Samsung says that the speaker setup should allow the Galaxy Home to deliver a surround sound experience. The device also comes with a set of eight far-field microphones and some buttons on top for controlling volume and skipping tracks.

With Bixby, users will be able to use voice commands to play music or perform other tasks. Samsung has also partnered with Spotify to bring music streaming to the Galaxy Home and other Samsung products. Spotify will be fully integrated with Bixby, which means that Samsung’s voice assistant will automatically play tracks from Spotify when a user asks to play a song.