Galaxy S8

Samsung Galaxy S8 has gone to nice lengths to position its new Bixby assistant because the automated centerpiece of the new Galaxy S8. It even included a dedicated button on the phone only for launching it (though you’ll remap the button if you therefore choose). However, during a statement given to The Verge this afternoon, Samsung admits that Bixby’s headline feature voice control won’t be prepared in time for when the device ships to United States consumers on April 21st. Instead, owners of the S8 will have to stay up for a software update to be released later this spring.Samsung's S8

Key options of Bixby, including Vision, Home, and Reminder, will be available with the worldwide launch of the Galaxy S8 on April 21. Bixby Voice will be available within the United States on the Samsung Galaxy S8 later this spring, Samsung’s statement reads. So yes, new S8 owners will be ready to use Bixby’s augmented reality camera options, Bixby Vision as it’s called, and therefore the access the home panel, which is essentially a pane of widgets. Oh, and reminders you will be ready to set reminders.samsung_galaxyS8_bixby_launcher

Yet the largest differentiating issue between Samsung’s software and Siri or Google Assistant is Bixby’s ability to perform more manual tasks on your behalf, like lightly editing a photograph or composing and sending an email. Anything you’ll be able to do with “touch”, you’ll be able to do with “voice” is how Samsung reps have boasted about Bixby within the lead-up to, during, and after the S8 launch event last month.

Bixby was also positioned as perhaps the second most significant addition to the Galaxy line during the unveiling, behind only the S8’s bezel-less display. That is what makes it therefore confounding that Samsung will not be shipping the phone with Bixby’s standout feature intact. whatever the delay is, it is seemingly to complicate Samsung’s grand ambitions for it’s digital assistant, especially when it only come off weeks (months?) after launch as an update footnote users might ignore.