Samsung announced Wednesday new updates to its Bixby assistant that improve the user experience, performance, and capabilities of the smart assistant.
The Korean tech giant said in a blog post that the new updates provide significant improvements in Bixby’s ability to recognize language, giving people greater control over their mobile experience.
And Samsung had introduced with the user interface (One UI 5) One UI 5 the feature of text calls via Bixby Text Call, but the initial version of the feature was limited to the Korean language only. And now the feature supports the English language in the company’s phones that use the One UI 5.1 user interface.
It is noteworthy that the Text Call feature converts your voice calls into text chats that you can read and respond to with text chats that the smart assistant converts into a voice call using the text-to-speech system. In this way, it is similar to the Screen Call feature from Google.
This feature is useful in environments where it is not possible for you to answer calls by voice, especially if it is noisy that you cannot hear calls and speech clearly, or if it is quiet that requires you not to disturb those around you.
In this feature, the smart assistant Bixby can learn to simulate your voice, by recording some sentences with your voice, and then the system, thanks to artificial intelligence technology, simulates the voice. However, Bixby Custom Voice Creator now only supports Korean.
Samsung also said in its post that users can now summon the intelligent assistant Bixby using a custom word. Previously, the call phrases were limited to Hi, Bixby or Bixby only. However, after the new update, it will be possible to summon the smart assistant with any word or phrase chosen by the user.
Also, with the new updates, Bixby has become smarter in understanding the context across different applications. For example, you can ask it to start a training session through the Samsung Health application, and then ask to play an audio file for this training, so the artificial intelligence works to choose the appropriate files for the type of sports training that you I started it.
Given that a lot of modern AI takes place in the cloud, which raises privacy concerns, Samsung said Bixby can perform some common commands completely offline.
This includes setting a timer, taking a screenshot, and turning on the flashlight. AI-based voice dictation is also available offline and currently supports: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Korean.
