Reference to ‘Bixby’ appears on Samsung’s website, suggests it might not be a full-fledged digital assistant

There have been rumors for quite some time now about Samsung‘s intention to join the AI race and launch a competitor to the likes of Google‘s Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana along the launch of its upcoming Galaxy S8.

We’d heard its name could be “Bixby,” and thanks to a little snippet, it looks like that will indeed be the case. However, there could be something more regarding what Bixby actually is…

On Samsung Italy’s Privacy page, in fact, among a lot of stuff you will probably never care about sits the word “Bixby.” The name of the assistant is tied to “voice commands,” which sure sounds a lot like something a AI helper would do, but the presence of S Voice in the previous sentence makes it all sound a bit confusing.

The small paragraph in question goes something like this (it’s a translation I made as a native Italian speaker):

Depending on your model and region, you will be able to tell your Mobile Device to activate certain functions, such as playing songs from a playlist or looking up for something on the web using S Voice. In addition to that, you will be able to control all the operations made with the touch interface using voice commands with Bixby.

For one, if it reads a little weird, it’s because the original text in Italian doesn’t sound native at all. My money is on it having been translated from another language, which makes it a little cryptic. However, if my understanding is correct, it almost sounds as if Bixby will not be a “traditional” digital assistant, but rather a built-in tool that can allow users to perform each action of the touch UI with voice.

You could, say, ask to open an app, and possibly even move within it somehow. That’s at least what that text’s snippet is alluding to. However, as per the above, more complex things such as directly playing a specific song from a playlist or making a web search would allegedly still be handled by S Voice; as I assume, would things like setting reminders or asking for a joke.

I know it sounds strange, and again, I bet that there may have been some translation error, so take this with a grain of salt. I’m just going by what that text bit says. However, having complete control on every possible action on your smartphone simply using your voice could be cool, if executed properly. But what do you think? Drop us a line in the comment section below.