What is Bixby, users became known in the fall of 2017. Samsung has announced the launch of a new voice assistant for all of the brand's devices. So Bixby received not only smartphones and tablets, but also laptops, refrigerators and other household appliances.

At the presentation of the new program, the developers said that their product will be different from all the samples on the market today.

Consider what Samsung has Bixby and what are the features of the voice assistant from the Koreans:

The program is based on Viv startup Doug Kitlas, who also helped create Siri, an assistant on Apple devices. But according to the assurances of engineers, Bixby is not an easy set of commands, and artificial intelligence, which learns the habits of the “owner”, learns and improves.
Bixby is a collection of applications that work together to solve a specific problem. With the help of 1 command, it is possible to select a photo in the gallery and send it to the desired addressee, change the smartphone settings or translate a foreign inscription. The Bixby camera allows you to find out information about an object or location, point the lens and turn on the function.
The program understands not only a narrow range of words or phrases, but also distinguishes the context. You can say the command in your own words, and Bixby will decipher its meaning. Bring the camera to a monument or painting and ask an assistant to find all the information about the object.

Bixby is focused on understanding and learning from humans. The application will find unknown phrases on the Internet and remember them for the future.

How Bixby works

Samsung Corporation is stubbornly following its own development path. While competitors are diligently getting rid of every extra button on their smartphones, the Koreans have added (!) One more to control the voice assistant. The developers decided that the Home key was already overflowing with functions, so a separate button was allocated for Bixby. Whether it will take root or not is a matter of time, if yes, then such a feature awaits all models of the line.

Now let's take a look at what features Samsung's voice assistant includes.

Bixby functions

The new generation voice assistant uses context in its work, the program thinks over commands, remembers and draws conclusions, thereby studying the habits of the smartphone owner. There are 4 main Bixby functions: Bixby Voice, Bixby Vision, Bixby Home

Bixby Voice

Happy owners of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 + got acquainted with the new application already in beta at the end of 2017. True, the first versions understood only two languages - Korean and English, the Russian language appeared in 2018, after the end of testing. To add a language, it was necessary to contact Samsung stores to update.

Bixby Voice is a voice control function. Use it to send messages, find the desired contact, change the settings of your smartphone with one command.

Bixby Vision

New, impressive feature from Koreans. Point your smartphone camera at the desired object, focus, tap the Bixby camera icon. After scanning, you will go into a mode where you can find out the history of the item and any other information about it. Feature advantages:

· Now translate foreign inscriptions without a long search in the dictionary;

· Learn about the sights of a city or country by taking pictures of a building or street;

· Are you planning a renovation? just take pictures of the room, the program will find options for decorating the apartment; create an individual design with a few clicks.

Plus, find out all about the new movie by pointing your camera at the movie premiere poster. True, the accuracy of the data depends on the signal of the network and the speed of the Internet.

Bixby Home

Use Bixby Home to create a homepage with the functionality you want. Set up notifications for appointments, events, view photos or check the weather with one touch.

Make templates with different options. Set up your smartphone so that in the morning you will be woken up not only by the call, but also by the to-do list for today. Do you like reading the news at lunch? At the right time, the smartphone will display sites with relevant information.

Bixby Reminder

With this feature, Bixby will be able, based on the user's geolocation, to offer the owner a particular set of proposals. For example, when traveling on a repetitive route, the smartphone will display information about traffic jams, weather and other important factors.

Bixby functionality

After we figured out what this Bixby Samsung app is, let's find out its capabilities and learn how to use the assistant. Bixby's work can be roughly divided into three main blocks:

Bixby Voice – organizes work with various devices using voice control. You can launch Samsung TV, change the screen saver picture on the screen, take a selfie and immediately post it to your Facebook and so on, controlling the device using voice commands and switching between different modes;
Bixby Vision – Lets you take advantage of many of the benefits of using your phone's camera. Working in a similar way with Google Goggles and Amazon shopping app, you can identify an item by simply pointing the camera at it and pressing the Bixby Vision button. The assistant will allow you to recognize and identify an object (picture, place, text, product) and give relevant information on it;

Bixby Vision will not only provide information about the product, but also purchase it
Bixby Home – For those who do not directly work with voice services, there is a tool “Bixby Home”, which resembles the page “Google Now” with your personalized feed. There are integrated many services like Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, Gallery and other popular applications.

How to set up the Bixby assistant

Before you can start fully working with Bixby, the assistant will need to be configured. You will need to start Bixby by clicking on a special button on the left side of the phone, and follow the commands that appear on the screen.

Assistant call button

During the setup process, you will be prompted to say a few phrases, adjusting the application to suit the characteristics of your voice.

In the app's settings, you can also choose the language and voice of your assistant by clicking on Bixby Home, tapping on the button with three vertical buttons at the top, then choosing Settings – Language and Speaking Style. Here you can select both the language and the voice for the pronunciation of phrases by the assistant.

Customize your Bixby

How to use Bixby

Bixby is very easy to use. You say “Hey Bixby” or press the corresponding button to call the assistant, then say the desired command, many of which are supported by the assistant (you can view their list in the assistant's functionality). For example, after you say “Open Google Maps and Navigate to Red Square,” the assistant will open the Google Maps application and show you how to get to Red Square.

To activate the assistant, say “Hey, Bixby”

If Bixby did not understand your words, or you asked an incorrect question, the assistant will indicate this and offer to reformulate the request.

Everything you need at the ready

Bixby learns your daily activities and helps you find the information you need faster.
By studying app usage patterns over time and place, Bixby can predict what you're looking for.

Morning workout

Exercise in the morning?
Bixby knows your schedule.
So every morning when you wake up and head to workout, it prepares weather information, music playlist and Samsung Health for you.

Lunch break

Reading the news at lunch? With Bixby, you can view your calendar, read news, and flip through Facebook every day.

Evening trips from work

Always leave work at 6:30 pm? You can now order an Uber quickly and then easily find the YouTube video you've been putting off all day.

Beach day

Do you go to the beach every Saturday? Bixby knows your weekend habits, so Foursquare and the gallery are there when you need them.

Setting up the virtual assistant

1 Select the appropriate language. At the moment there are only two of them: English and South Korean.

2 The voice assistant shows you how to communicate.

3 You need to say a couple of phrases so that the assistant understands who is asking the questions. You need to speak the way you speak in ordinary life.

4 Setting up a voice cipher.

5 Say the phrases again.

The setup is complete.

How do I disable and remap the Bixby button?

Previously, the Bixby Button Remapper app worked to remap the key. But at the moment, Samsung has released an update that blocks this possibility on most devices.

For now, you can simply disable the Bixby button by updating the app to the latest version. Further, when you press the button to call the assistant, a dialog box with a switch will appear. To disable a button, simply set the appropriate switch position:

If for some reason the dialog box does not appear, open the menu (three dots in the upper left corner) / Settings / Open the “Bixby key” section and disable the button similar to the instructions above.

Bixby release in Russian?

So far, the voice assistant is not available to the Russian-speaking user in the usual Russian language. However, the developers say that in the near future (in 2018) the situation will change and the virtual assistant will be able to speak many languages, including Russian.

Smarter search.

Don't try to come up with keywords. Just point the camera at whatever interests you. From the name of the famous attraction you're visiting, to image search results, and more, the Bixby Camera app gives you the information you need.

Food recognition only shows approximate nutritional information. The actual calorie content of food consumed may differ depending on the person's consumption and health status.
Search accuracy can be affected by external conditions and settings.

Convenience of shopping.

Do you see what you would like to buy? Take a photo of this and the Bixby Camera app will show you related ratings, reviews and prices to help you make a more informed purchasing decision.

No translation problems.

Extract, translate, search, read and share text. Bixby Camera makes it easy to translate texts of various lengths and sizes, from small labels to large signs.

Anyone can use the Bixby Camera app.

Accessibility features are also available in the Bixby Camera app to assist visually impaired users. The simple interface makes it easy to customize so that the Bixby Camera app verbally describes what is shown on the screen, helping users to visualize the world around them.

Description Mode currently supports US English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish (Spain).
The fast reading function supports 54 languages, which are the same as those available as source for the translation function.

How to remap Samsung Bixby button

Despite the fact that there are ways to make the voice assistant work in Russia, not everyone can fully use it anyway – the service is not Russified and understands commands only in English. Therefore, many people prefer to either reassign the Bixby button or disable it altogether. We'll talk about disabling below, but for now we'll tell you how to “screw” the launch of another program or command to the Bixby button.

Attention: only one of the proposed options may suit you, or neither one nor the other, or both will work. It all depends on the device model, the version of the voice assistant and the country of location.

The meaning of button remapping

To make it clear, let's recall the principle of using the left button of a computer mouse:

One click – mark an object, click on active links and buttons.
Double click – opening folders, launching files with the .exe extension, etc.

Samsung's Bixby button is exactly the same – the system recognizes requests by one press and by double press. By default, you can enable the assistant with a single click, and the “double” request remains free. This is what we will use.

From service settings

How to set up Bixby in Samsung, button remapping:

Launch Bixby → Menu → Settings → Bixby key → One tap (check mark).

Back → enable Double tap → “Gear” next to “Open app.” → by touching, mark the program that you want to place the second on the key of the voice assistant.

The changes made will be saved automatically.

Through a third party program

If you do not see the functionality you need in the settings, try to operate through a special application. For example, you can use the BxActions Remap Button – it's available in the Play Store.

Making changes to how Bixby Samsung works with another app:

Open BxActions → Next → Finish → “On” for “Detect Current Application” → Finish.
Grant Permissions → Ok.
The next window is BxActions → “On” for “Allow statistics collection” → “On” for “Receive requests from the button” → Ok → Ok → Done.
Scroll window up → BxActions – Bixby button → “Off” for “Off” → Ok.
“Bixby button” → Short press → On → select the desired action (check mark).

Which Samsung models support the app

Initially, the assistant only functioned on two Samsung devices – S8 and S8 Plus. Subsequently, this list has expanded. Today the application works on such models of the company's smartphones – S10, S10 +, Note9, S10e, A9 Star, A8 2018, A8 + 2018, A7 2018, A5 2018, A6, A6 +, J7 +, Tab s4, J7 TOP, Tab A2, W2018 and a number of others. The number of Samsung models that support Bixby is constantly expanding.

Analogues and their features

There are still discussions among experts about what Samsung's Bixby is and how relevant this application is. The reason is that the program has a number of competitors in the form of the following programs:

Google Now is a personal assistant that works stably, provides voice prompts and opens access to Google maps. He is able to answer questions, recommend something, and perform certain actions.

Siri is software that uses voice to send SMS, dial other users' numbers, set reminders, etc. The program understands the owner's words and converts them into action. Newer versions are more stable and have more features. For example, they are able to identify music tracks.

Google Assistant is a personal assistant created by the company of the same name. The presence of such software raises the question of why the Bixby assistant from Samsung is needed, because the application from Google performs almost the same functions. But it was like that at first. Over time, the developers of the Bixby program have expanded its functionality. As far as Google Assistant is concerned, it is capable of speech recognition, object detection, and collecting visual data through the camera. The app is easy to install and fast.

Cortana is a personal user assistant that makes life easier for the user and helps to solve important tasks.

Despite the variety of competitors, Samsung's assistant has successfully coped with the onslaught. For example, Amazon Alexa understands only one language, while Siri took four years to start recognizing Russian. Siri certainly wins in this regard. As noted, Samsung does not announce the date when the application for Russian-speaking citizens will appear. On the other hand, the application works better with gestures, which is what the developers focus on.

Also on our website you can find out about which phones support wireless charging, and which ones are Xiaomi with an NFC module.

Operating principle

Samsung has implemented many features that make the app truly useful to the user. The developers install the following Bixby scenarios for the future development of the program – multi-device control, context and human language understanding. The application is fast and uses all the functionality of a Samsung phone, from different sensors to the device's camera.

Turn-on instructions

There are two ways to turn on Bixby – using the phrase “Hi, Bixbi” or by pressing and holding the dedicated button. A small blue circle appears on the left side of the screen. For a long time, Samsung did not provide the ability to disable or reassign the button. After the release of the update, this became possible. If the owner of the Samsung smartphone has turned off the button and plans to turn it on again, there are two ways to resolve the issue.

Via voice command:

press the application button and activate Voice and prompts;
click on the gear sign in the upper right of the display;
enable the Key option by moving the slider to the right.

From the home screen:

click on the display and slide your finger from right to left;
flip the toggle switch on the Home assistant;
open the Home display and click the gear icon in the upper right;
turn on the Key by sliding the switch.

The last step is to make sure Bixby on Samsung is working as usual.

Sources used and useful links on the topic: https://rAndroid.ru/services/bixby-samsung-chto-eto-i-kak-rabotaet https://sdelaicomp.ru/obzori/bixby-samsung-chto-eto-i -kak-rabotaet.html https://www.samsung.com/ru/apps/bixby/home/ https://privet-Alice.ru/golosovye-pomoshniki/bixby-samsung https://www.samsung.com / ru / apps / bixby / vision / https://4gltee.ru/bixby-samsung-chto-eto/ https://besprovodnik.ru/bixby-samsung-chto-eto/

Post source: lastici.ru