Bixby isn’t dead (yet) as Galaxy AI arrives

Ben Schoon | Jan 18 2024 - 5:15 am PT

Voice assistants on our smartphones are an expected part of the device, but as AI takes over, they’re changing. Samsung, though, isn’t killing off Bixby for its new Galaxy AI suite, but it’s also not changing anything either.

Bixby first launched on the Galaxy S8 way back in 2017. At the time, it managed to get a dedicated button on some Samsung phones, but that eventually faded away, as did Samsung’s emphasis on the voice assistant itself. Bixby is still around in 2024, but it has largely transitioned into a role where it helps with on-device automation.

Under the new “era” of Galaxy AI that Samsung is launching on the Galaxy S24 series, where does Bixby fit in? Really, nothing is changing.

Samsung isn’t removing Bixby from the Galaxy S24 series. The assistant will remain in place under a long-press of the power button (by default) on those devices. In fact, with “Circle to Search” now available, Bixby will have more prominent placement on Galaxy devices given that Assistant can’t easily be accessed anymore when users have Android’s three-button layout enabled (which is the default on Samsung devices and the one Samsung users still primarily use).

Here are all of Samsung’s new Galaxy AI features [Gallery]

It doesn’t really come as a huge surprise that Bixby isn’t going away, as Samsung’s new AI suite doesn’t quite match any of its functionality. That said, the writing seems to be on the wall. While Google prepares to effectively replace the Assistant on Android with Bard and ChatGPT aims to let users ring in its LLM as the default assist app, Samsung is pretty much just leaving its assistant out to dry.

*Bixby runs as normal on the Galaxy S24*

The Samsung Galaxy S24 series is available for pre-order now, starting at $799. Pre-orders come with doubled storage, boosted trade-ins up to $750, and bonus credit up to $150.

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