What you need to know
- Samsung drops a surprise as it launches its promised overhaul for Bixby in an overseas foldable launch.
- The debut brings generative AI features to Bixby, like on-screen translation, better "complex" query understanding, and more.
- Samsung's TM Roh stated the company was aiming for a "late 2024" launch, which has happened for China; however, it's unclear when it'll hit the U.S.
Since Galaxy AI debuted, Samsung has been slowly upgrading its on-device helper, Bixby, but it seems the AI's major overhaul arrived for one overseas market.
Samsung launched its next wave of foldables in China: the W25 and the W25 Flip, alternates of the Fold's Special Edition and the Galaxy Z Flip 6. However, as spotted by SamMobile, the Korean OEM's debut included the surprise inclusion of its "next-generation" on-device AI assistant, Bixby.
From the launch page, Samsung has seemingly stepped up Bixby's ability to understand what the user wants and its content understanding capabilities.
Regarding the former, the company states its next-gen Bixby can "understand complex user intentions" (machine-translated). This might be similar to what Google did for its AI Overviews. Samsung states Bixby can "deeply perceive" what a user wants, as well as maintain a sharp understanding through multi-step instructions in "a single sentence."
Samsung also upgraded Bixby with stronger, more "accurate" on-screen translation capabilities. Mandarin is likely fully supported seeing as these devices launched in the Chinese market. Samsung added that it will expand its language support for Bixby's on-screen translation feature, but a timeline wasn't detailed.
Bixby's content understanding capabilities extend to videos, too. According to Samsung, Bixby can "cleverly integrate text and video" from online sources. The company states this should give users better context about places they may travel to.
Lastly, the Gen AI upgrades bring "office document generation." The OEM states Bixby can generate Word, PowerPoint, and "other documents based on user needs."
In July, Samsung confirmed that a major overhaul of its on-device assistant Bixby was inbound. The company's Head of Mobile Business, TM Roh, stated that such advancements with its AI are a "driver" for consumer interest and "convenience." The upgrade was centered around funneling generative AI features into its assistant, which were previously rumored to have been influenced by ChatGPT.
Roh stated that Samsung was interested in debuting such advancements "later in 2024" and it seems to have hit that estimation. There's no telling when other markets, such as the U.S., could see this upgraded Gen AI version of Bixby. It's possible that it could drop alongside the Galaxy S25 series next year with One UI 7, but we're just speculating.
Currently, Galaxy S24 users can mess with a smaller update to Bixby, which brought hands-free capabilities to the AI. Samsung highlighted such features in February, stating users can leverage Live Translate, Spelling Correction, Webpage Summaries, and File organization without lifting a finger. Users can initiate their hands-free experience with "Hi Bixby..."
