Bixby makes your Samsung smarter.

Bixby is Samsung's voice-activated virtual assistant, designed to provide a personalized and seamless experience across the brand’s wide range of devices. Introduced in 2017, Bixby was Samsung’s answer to the increasing prominence of virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant. Initially focused on enhancing user interaction with Samsung smartphones, Bixby quickly expanded its reach to include tablets, smart TVs, wearables, and even home appliances. Over time, Bixby has developed and grown, adding new features and improving its ability to understand user commands, making it an essential part of Samsung’s ecosystem.

At its core, Bixby functions as a voice assistant that allows users to control and interact with their Samsung devices using voice commands. By simply saying “Hi, Bixby,” users can ask questions, send messages, launch apps, set reminders, and manage settings hands-free. Bixby is built to understand natural language, meaning users don’t need to stick to rigid or specific phrasing when making requests. This adaptability and conversational nature make Bixby a more intuitive assistant, offering a smoother and more natural user experience than many other voice assistants.

One of Bixby’s standout features is its deep integration with Samsung’s hardware and software. Unlike some voice assistants that primarily rely on third-party integrations, Bixby is designed to manage and control a wide range of Samsung’s built-in features and settings. Users can adjust things like screen brightness, sound levels, and battery usage by simply asking Bixby to do so, without navigating through menus. Additionally, Bixby works seamlessly with Samsung apps, enabling users to send messages, launch apps, or modify preferences just by speaking.

Bixby’s control capabilities extend beyond smartphones. Thanks to Samsung’s SmartThings platform, Bixby can manage various connected devices in a smart home, such as refrigerators, smart TVs, air conditioners, and security systems. By linking Bixby to SmartThings, users can issue commands like “Hi Bixby, turn on the air conditioner” or “Hi Bixby, play Netflix on the TV,” offering a simple and hands-free way to manage their connected home devices. This integration places Bixby at the heart of Samsung’s efforts to build a unified and connected smart home ecosystem.

A unique strength of Bixby is its ability to carry out multi-step tasks. For instance, users can ask Bixby to perform a series of actions in one command, such as “Hi Bixby, take a photo and send it to John with the message ‘I’ll be there in 10 minutes.’” In this case, Bixby would take the picture and send the message, efficiently handling multiple actions in a single command. This capability distinguishes Bixby from many other virtual assistants, which may struggle with more complex, multi-step tasks.

Bixby Vision is another powerful feature that uses AI and the device’s camera to provide visual recognition. Users can point their phone’s camera at objects, barcodes, or landmarks, and Bixby can identify them and provide relevant information, such as product details, pricing, or location data. Bixby Vision can also translate text in real time, making it a useful tool for travelers or anyone in need of quick translations. By combining AI and augmented reality, Bixby enhances users’ environments with live information and context.

Personalization is another area where Bixby shines. As users interact with the assistant, it learns their preferences, habits, and routines, gradually becoming more efficient at offering tailored responses. For example, if users frequently ask for traffic updates in the morning, Bixby may begin providing these updates automatically. This level of personalization makes Bixby feel more responsive and attuned to individual needs, enhancing the overall experience.

In terms of accessibility, Bixby includes features designed to assist users with disabilities. It offers hands-free control over many aspects of Samsung devices, allowing those with visual or physical impairments to easily navigate and operate their devices. This functionality makes Bixby an important tool for making Samsung’s products more accessible to a diverse range of users.

Bixby has also improved its voice recognition and natural language processing capabilities. Samsung has worked to ensure that Bixby can understand a wide variety of accents, dialects, and speech patterns, enabling more people around the world to use it effectively. By regularly updating the assistant’s language models, Samsung aims to improve Bixby’s accuracy and ability to understand complex, nuanced commands.

Despite its strengths, Bixby has faced some criticism, particularly in comparison to other established virtual assistants like Google Assistant and Siri. Some users have found that Bixby’s voice recognition can be less accurate, especially when commands are phrased in unexpected ways. However, Samsung has committed to improving Bixby through frequent updates, addressing these accuracy issues, and expanding its capabilities.

Privacy is another area where Samsung has focused attention in developing Bixby. As with other voice assistants, Bixby processes voice data to interpret commands, but Samsung has implemented robust data protection protocols and allows users to manage their privacy settings. Users can delete voice recordings and control how their data is used, providing greater transparency and control over personal information.