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Samsung Opens Its Voice Assistant Bixby To Developers as It Pursues Alexa and Siri
Samsung said Wednesday it was rolling out new voice-assistant features to challenge its U.S. rivals' dominance in AI. At its developer conference, where the company is also expected to unveil its first foldable smartphone, the company said it was fully opening its virtual assistant, called Bixby, to third-party developers and businesses for the first time. The move may help the company challenge incumbent players Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google's Assistant.
Much of the assistant market is yet to be tapped, and it is the right time for developers to embrace Bixby, an executive said. The company said it is offering a no-trade off set of tools (what it calls Bixby Developer Studio) to developers to make use of Bixby. It's the first time any company is offering the full suite of tools that it uses to make its assistant to developers, the company said.
Further reading: VentureBeat.
Much of the assistant market is yet to be tapped, and it is the right time for developers to embrace Bixby, an executive said. The company said it is offering a no-trade off set of tools (what it calls Bixby Developer Studio) to developers to make use of Bixby. It's the first time any company is offering the full suite of tools that it uses to make its assistant to developers, the company said.
Further reading: VentureBeat.
My wife bought a Samsung "smart refrigerator" with Bixby built-in. I can assure you that Bixby is no where near the privacy threat that Alexa and Siri are, because IT DOESN'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING YOU SAY.
Bixby is way behind where Siri and Alexa were even back in 2015. The interface is clunky: You say "Hello Bixby" and then wait for it to acknowledge (which it often fails to do), and then you make your request, which it then either ignores or misunderstands.
Using the Bixby voice interface to, say, show the contents of the refrigerator on the touchscreen, is going to take ten times as long as just opening the door and looking.
It is not all bad. The speakers on the Samsung smart fridge are actually very good, with a deep base and full range. So if nice sound quality is something you look for in a refrigerator, it might be a good choice.