Samsung's Bixby Voice Assistant Is Finally Coming to the US -- But Only As a Preview

When the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ went on sale in the North American market, it was missing one of its most touted features -- the Bixby smart assistant. Technically, it was available on launch day but its voice functionality was missing due to issues with the English language version, thus rendering the dedicated Bixby button on the side of the S8 and S8+ nearly useless. Today, Bixby Voice is finally making its stateside debut -- but only as a preview. TechCrunch reports: The company is positioning this is a "sneak peak" for the feature that was initially planned to debut on its new flagship phones. Starting this week, a select number of Galaxy S8 and S8+ can sign up to be among the first in the U.S. to test it out. From the sound of it, Samsung's still working on some tweaks here, using this limited launch to basically do some public beta testing. The company didn't have a lot to say about the closed launch, aside from reiterating some of its grandiose plans for making Bixby, "an integral part of our connected ecosystem," according to the company's CTO.

bill

[turkeydance]

is that you?

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[dlleigh]

Don't make your voice assistant mad. You won't like it when it's mad.

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[TWX]

Same here. God we're getting old.

Re:

[Mike Van Pelt]

Uncle Martin? Are you there? Quit fooling around. Dang it, I hate when you do that invisibility thing.

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[davester666]

Clippy will help you through this difficult transition.

YAVA

[GlennC]

Yet Another Voice Assistant, that I have no intention of using. I'm satisfied with my Galaxy S5 that I'm running rooted Lollipop on. I'm going to check out LG or BLU for the replacement once this finally gives out. At least they don't have one a voice assistant...at least, not one that I know of.

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[TWX]

Heh. I'll use a voice-assistant when it runs locally and I have the ability to control what stores.

If it has to connect to someone else's server just to process then I'm sorry, I don't want it.

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[sexconker]

I would recommend you avoid all LG devices. They pretty much all overheat and bootloop.

I want Begbie

[mfearby]

A Begbie voice assistant would be cool. I'd use that :-)

No Thanks

[sexconker]

Samsung has a terrible record on privacy, security, and safety. From exploding batteries to exploding washing machines to TVs and fridges that spy on you and inject ads into content and are susceptible to ransomware DDoS.

Layer Samsung on top of Android, the world's most insecure, least efficient OS, and you've got a recipe for fucking disaster.

Despite all the lock down (fuck you, Knox), shitty bloatware (S Suggest, Samsung Pay, Samsung Me Too for everything), I still wanted a Note 7 because I thoroughly en

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[Presence Eternal]

The Note 4 is quite good. Its sole flaws are the fingerprint sensor being quite poor and the whole issue with """"security"""" updates. More people than I have called it the last great Android smartphone. It's like the smartphone equivalent Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It will likely never be equaled in its category because the industry has moved on and no one is willing to try.

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[sexconker]

I was eyeing the Note 4 but decided my Note II was fine (and it was). Then the Note 5 came out and it was a step back from the Note 4. SO I said fuck it - I'll stick with the II for another year and wait for the Note 6 - surely they'll respond to the backlash from the 5 and get their shit together.

When the 7 (the 6 was skipped, as you likely know) came out, I was ready to jump on it, even with Knox and all the other horseshit. But thankfully I waited a bit to let the dust settle, and by then the explosio

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[Voyager529]

There were a handful of things that makes the Note 4 worthwhile, especially since good condition Note 4's are pretty cheap on eBay and Swappa. The S-Pen works for the back and task switch buttons (which were finger-only on the Note 2). The IR Blaster is helpful as a universal remote, and the front-facing camera is definitely better. The Note 2 had a better S-Pen, though.

I just bought a refurbed Note Edge that I'm pretty happy with. I'm a stickler for removable batteries because I'm a die hard fan of afterma

Please let us disable Bixby Button first!

[mimino]

What does the left-side hardware button do in the US version of S8 and S8+? Because having non-disableable Bixby on it is VERY annoying.

My S8+

[hduff]

My new S8+ keeps prompting me to use Bixby. I just activated it and it seems to run just fine, so what's all the hubbub about?

How to Turn it off?

[OppMan29]

This is the only thing I hate about my GS8.