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Bixby (software)

Intelligent personal assistant by Samsung From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bixby (software)
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Bixby (/ˈbɪksbi/ ⓘ) is a virtual assistant developed by Samsung Electronics[6] that runs on various Samsung-branded appliances, primarily mobile devices but also some refrigerators[7] televisions and PCs. It uses voice commands and a natural-language user interface to answer questions and perform tasks, while adapting to the users' preferences and behavior.[8][9]

Quick facts Developer, Initial release ...

Samsung first launched Bixby in 2017.[10] Along with Bixby voice assistant, its other main component currently is Bixby Vision, a contextual and visual search augmented reality[11] camera app.[12] Formerly, the Bixby suite consisted of a number of other tools but these have since been renamed, such as Bixby Routines (now Modes and Routines).[13]

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History

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Bixby Home, the former information screen at launch of Bixby 1.0

On 20 March 2017, Samsung announced the voice-powered digital assistant named "Bixby" as a replacement of the S Voice assistant.[10][8][14][15] It was introduced alongside the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the Galaxy Tab A (2017) during the Galaxy Unpacked 2017 event;[16][17][18] although released for these devices, it could also be sideloaded on older Galaxy devices running Android Nougat.[19] A while before the phone's release, the Bixby Button was reprogrammable and could be set to open other applications or assistants, such as Google Assistant. However, near the phone's release, this ability was removed with a firmware update, but can be remapped using third-party apps.[20]

Bixby in Korean was launched on 1 May 2017 (KST).[21] Bixby Voice was intended to be made available in the US later that spring,[22] however, the release of the English version was postponed as Samsung had problems getting Bixby to fully understand the language.[23] The English version was finally rolled out in July 2017[24] and later that year followed by a Chinese language version.[25]

In October 2017, Samsung announced the release of Bixby 2.0 during its annual developer conference in San Francisco. The new version was rolled out across the company's line of connected products, including smartphones, TVs, and refrigerators. Also, third parties are allowed to develop applications for Bixby using the Samsung Developer Kit.[26] Bixby 3.0 was released with One UI 3 at the start of 2021.[27] With version 3.0, Home and Reminders features were separated from Bixby.

In 2019, UX developers at Samsung said their intention to use the AR Emoji avatar as a personified Bixby assistant.[28]

In June 2021, screenshots surfaced for what some thought as a replacement for Bixby.[29] The three-dimensional virtual assistant, Sam, was popular on social media though it was not intended as a replacement for Bixby.[30][31]

Bixby launched for Microsoft Windows in October 2021 with distribution through the Microsoft Store. This version of Bixby is optimized for Samsung's Galaxy Book computers and may not function on non-Samsung systems.[32][33]

Samsung launched an AI Bixby custom voice creator in 2023 allowing users to record their own voice commands.[34][35]

Most recently, in July 2024, Samsung confirmed that it plans to launch an upgraded version of Bixby later this year. This new Bixby would be powered by Samsung's proprietary large language model (LLM) technology, promising a significant boost to Bixby's capabilities with the help of generative AI.[36][37]

In January 2025 with the announcement of Galaxy S25 and the One UI 7 update, Bixby is no longer the default voice assistant now replaced in role by Google Gemini. Despite this, Bixby still continues to be developed and expanded by Samsung, and was revamped at the same time with new AI capabilites.[38] Also, Samsung brought the "smarter" Bixby to Samsung televisions, allowing users to speak to their TV sets and also control their homes using it.[39]

A visual refresh planned for One UI 8.5.[40][40]

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Functionality

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Bixby running in Windows 11 responding to a query

Bixby is a voice assistant that can get tailored information about the weather, reminders of meetings, news articles, and others using artificial intelligence. It can learn individual voices, so it can personalize its answers.[41]

Bixby itself was also formerly called Bixby Voice to differentiate from other Bixby tools in the suite.

Bixby Vision

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Bixby Vision icon since 2025

Bixby Vision is an augmented-reality camera that can identify objects in real-time and potentially offer the user to purchase them online, translate text, read QR codes, and recognize landmarks.[42]

It comes pre-installed on Samsung Galaxy phones. It is considered to be the imaging component of Bixby.[43]

Former Bixby tools

Bixby Home was a vertically scrolling home screen with a list of information that Bixby could interact with, for example weather, fitness activity and buttons for controlling their smart home gadgets.[42] It was renamed "Samsung Daily" on One UI 2.1 released in 2020,[44] then in One UI 3.0 Samsung Daily itself was replaced by a new app called "Samsung Free" (some countries instead use the name "Samsung O"),[45] which has more recently been discontinued.[46][47] Samsung News is now its replacement and functions as a news aggregator with the option of home screen swipe integration similar to Bixby Home did.[47]

Bixby Routines is a feature that automates tasks by creating custom rules based on specific triggers, such as the time of day or the user's location. As of the release of One UI 5.0, the feature is now renamed to "Modes and Routines".[48]

Bixby Text Call is a handsfree call answer feature introduced with One UI 5.0 in 2022.[49] It is found in the settings of the Phone app.[50] It is now named simply "Text call".

Bixby Touch is a tool that makes recommendations based on intelligent recognition. The user can access services such as translation, online shopping, and media by touching the screen.

Bixby Global Action, Bixby Dictation and Bixby Wakeup are other older apps.[51]

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Regions and languages

As of April 2018, Bixby is available in over 195 countries, but only in Korean, English (American), and Chinese (Mandarin).[52] The limitation is that the models not intended for the Japanese market, like S10e, are not allowed to login to Bixby services from Japan; therefore Bixby becomes blocked. The choice of languages has since expanded: Samsung has deployed Bixby's voice command function in French,[53][54] and on 20 February 2019 Samsung announced the addition of further languages: English (British), German, Italian and Spanish (Spain).[55] On 22 February 2020, Samsung announced the addition of Portuguese (Brazil), for Galaxy S10 & Note10, in Beta, and later for other models.[56]

Compatible devices

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Flagship series

Other series

Galaxy A
Galaxy M
Galaxy F
Galaxy Tab A
Galaxy J
  • Galaxy J4 (2018) (Bixby Home)[59]
  • Galaxy J7+ (2017)[60]
  • Galaxy J6 (2018) (Bixby Vision, Bixby Home and Bixby Reminders)
  • Galaxy J6+ (2018)
Galaxy C
  • Galaxy C8 (Bixby Home, Reminder and Bixby Vision only)

Galaxy XCover

  • Galaxy XCover Pro

Laptops

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See also

Notes

  1. [a]
    Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only available on Android Oreo; S Voice used instead

References

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