Bixby finally learns to speak: Samsung launches "smart" beta

For years, Bixby remained a subject of jokes and the first candidate for disabling in the settings of a new smartphone. However, Samsung Electronics decided that it's time to turn its digital assistant into something truly useful. The company announced the start of beta testing a major update, aiming to bring the service closer to modern standards of user interaction. The main focus was on understanding natural language rather than mechanically memorizing menu item names.

The main problem with past-generation voice assistants was their limitation: you had to know the exact command to get a result. In the new version of Bixby, they are trying to erase this barrier. Now the device tries to understand the context and intentions of the user, even if expressed in the most informal way. This is a significant step forward for the Samsung ecosystem, which strives to integrate artificial intelligence into every aspect of a smartphone owner's life.

Forget about exact commands

According to information on the official Samsung blog, users no longer need to remember how a particular option is named in the depths of One UI settings. It's enough to simply describe your problem or wish. For example, if you say: "I don’t want the screen to turn off while I'm looking at it," the assistant will independently find and activate the "Keep screen on while viewing" function.

This is not just convenience but a paradigm shift. Instead of being an intermediary who only pushes buttons at your command, Bixby becomes an interpreter. It analyzes your request and correlates it with the system's capabilities. This approach makes the device more accessible for people who do not want to spend time studying instructions or technical terms.

Diagnosis and search without borders

Another interesting detail is Bixby's ability to act as a kind of "support service." If you ask: "Why is my phone screen always on when it's in my pocket?", the assistant will not just shrug but offer several solutions to the problem. This could be activating accidental touch protection or checking the proximity sensors' operation. In fact, the assistant starts to understand cause-and-effect relationships in the operation of hardware and software.

Besides internal settings, Bixby received direct access to current information on the network. Now on the Bixby page, you can see search results without needing to open a separate browser. Results are displayed directly in the assistant interface, saving time and making interaction seamless. This is Samsung's response to developing services like Google Gemini, where search and response generation are merged into one process.

Geography of testing

In the initial phase, not everyone got access to the updated features. Beta testing started in South Korea, Germany, India, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The choice of countries is quite logical: these are key markets for the company where sufficient data can be collected for training language models. Samsung promises to gradually expand the list of regions, so over time the "smarter" version of the assistant should appear in other countries.

While Samsung is working on voice, other giants focus on security and biometrics. For example, Google is developing its own face recognition system for the Pixel lineup and Chromebook laptops.