Samsung announces major Bixby update that can turn phone calls into text and clone your voice

Ben Schoon | Feb 22 2023 - 7:44 am PT

Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant has always been mocked in comparison to Google Assistant, but Samsung has built out the feature to include some genuinely useful features. This week, Samsung has announced a major update for its assistant that centers around voice and text interactions.

Rolling out through the end of this month, Samsung’s new Bixby update will deliver on a few key features.

Firstly, Samsung is bringing “Bixby Text Call” to English-speaking markets. This feature, first introduced in Korea last year, gives users the ability to answer phone calls and have Bixby speak to the caller based on the user’s text input. The feature also turns the caller’s voice into text output that you can read. Besides having some accessibility applications, this feature also seems useful for those times you just don’t want to speak on the phone.

Next up on the list is the “Bixby Custom Voice Creator,” which uses AI to effectively clone your voice. The feature takes a handful of sentences the user speaks aloud, which the assistant can then use to generate sentences with your voice and tone. This feature sounds super cool, but it’s limited to Korean for now.

Bixby is also adding support for custom wake words – it currently defaults to “Hi Bixby” – and improving its ability to play music based on the current scenario, such as a workout. On-device AI support is also expanding, as is language support and voice dictation.