Samsung had promised that it would showcase Bixby improvements with the Galaxy Note 9. The improvements were previously referred to as Bixby 2.0. While the company isn't branding it as such, its digital assistant is now more powerful and conversational than ever before.
There's an all-new interface for Bixby Voice. The improvements that Samsung has made to its assistant aren't just cosmetic. It's better at processing natural language and thus has quicker response times. It can even understand the user's habits and offer a more personal experience, so it's also more powerful.
Bixby on Galaxy Note 9
During the demonstration at its event today, Samsung showcased that it's now possible to have more natural conversations with the assistant. For example, if you ask Bixby about concerts in Brooklyn over Labor Day weekend and follow up with a question like “What about the first weekend in October?” Bixby will remember that you previously asked it about concerts and it will surface the relevant results. There's no need to remind Bixby of what you were talking about before.
Bixby is even better at making recommendations based on the user's preferences. If you ask it for restaurant recommendations, Bixby will surface options that are related to the places where you have made reservations in the past. If you decide to make a reservation, it will also autofill the number of people in your party and preferred time based on those previous reservations.
Samsung has also improved Bixby's integration with other apps. It can pull up directions from Google Maps at the touch of a button and can even let users call an Uber with just voice commands.
Many Samsung fans have long been frustrated with Bixby but the company will be hoping that it addresses their concerns and gets them to give its assistant another chance with this latest update. Whether or not Bixby on Galaxy Note 9 succeeds in doing that remains to be seen. Since these are software-based improvements, it's unclear as yet when these Bixby improvements will be released for existing devices like the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 8.
