Will Samsung drop Bixby?
In recent years, many manufacturers have decided to fill the market with their virtual assistants. Samsung is also participating in this competition since it has long relied on Bixby, the evolution of S Voice. The company launched its version of the digital assistant in 2017 during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, which led to the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 series, but according to some indications, the company may soon discontinue the same.
The truth is that Samsung’s assistant was never able to establish itself in the market due to the lack of functions. Compared to competitors like Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Siri, Bixby is slow, inaccurate and not very useful for users. In addition, it is only available for Samsung devices, which makes it difficult to build an ecosystem based on devices with different uses.
Apparently, there are many indications that suggest that Samsung is thinking about giving up a slice of voice assistant users: just think about the elimination of the Bixby quick launch key from the Samsung Galaxy S20 series or the fact that in recent years years the Korean company has not made any improvements to it, nor has it added any new features.
Another clue may be hidden in the fact that when updating its graphical interface, One UI 5.0 which is based on Android 13, Samsung has updated the Good Lock suite with the new RegiStar module, an app that allows you to customize some smartphone features. Through this module it is possible – among other functions – to customize the Power button. By pressing the button, the user can choose whether to correspond to the opening of a specific application or the launch of a system function, including Google Assistant; however, the new module does not support the Bixby voice assistant, and this is really strange, since this is a pre-installed service on all Samsung devices.
Another clue is that Samsung introduced Bixby Routines with the Samsung Galaxy S10, but you had to launch Bixby to access them. With the One UI 5.0 update, Samsung has changed the name of the function by renaming it “Modes and Routines” and – more importantly – its operation is completely independent of Bixby.
Another recent clue corresponds to Samsung’s willingness to challenge Google and Amazon with its own Galaxy Home, the Korean company’s smart speaker. The device was announced in 2018 but never saw the light of day. To remedy the change in plans, Samsung then decided to market a Galaxy Home Mini, a product it never firmly believed in given the lack of a promotional campaign.
In short, the indications of Samsung’s willingness to turn off its voice assistant are all there. It remains to wait for the company’s next moves to see if this will actually happen.
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