Two months on, Samsung releases Bixby in English

Samsung Electronics said Wednesday it kicked off the English-language service of its Bixby voice recognition program used on its flagship Galaxy S8 smartphones released earlier this year.

Bixby had been supporting only Korean despite the Korean tech giant’s vow to support more languages. Sources said Bixby faced hurdles in understanding English grammar and everyday conversations.

“Bixby understands natural language, so people can complete tasks by using everyday speech, rather than using preset and inflexible commands,” the company said. “Through iterative deep learning technology, Bixby can improve over time to recognize the user’s different preferences and ways of speaking.”

The voice recognition system connects to various programs within smartphones including clocks, contacts, the phone, cameras and schedule management.

Through cooperation with Google, Bixby will also be able to answer simple questions like, “What is the capital of the United States?”

Users can activate Bixby by clicking a separate button on the left side of the Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Plus, or simply saying, “Hi, Bixby.”

Samsung said around a million users have enjoyed the Korean-language Bixby that was launched May 1 so far, with the program responding to some 150 million voice commands. YONHAP