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Samsung’s Siri rival Bixby FINALLY launches in the UK after struggling to learn the lingo

SAMSUNG'S voice assistant has finally launched in the UK after a speedy course in English grammar and phrases.

The super smart software, named Bixby, was announced ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone launch back in April.

 The new Samsung Galaxy S8, left, and Galaxy S8 Plus mobile phones have been on sale since late April
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The new Samsung Galaxy S8, left, and Galaxy S8 Plus mobile phones have been on sale since late AprilCredit: AP:Associated Press

But as eager Samsung fans unboxed their new smartphones, the Siri rival was nowhere to be seen - despite the fact that Bixby had its own special button on the side of the device.

Insiders claimed that the Korean smartphone maker had been struggling to train its machines to understand the way we speak.

Bixby is already available in Korea - where Samsung is based - but English syntax and grammar is not its strong point, rumours suggested.

But ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 launch this afternoon, Bixby has been unveiled to the English-speaking market.

Injong Rhee, research and development executive at Samsung said: "Now millions of customers worldwide have access to a new and intelligent way of interacting with their phone.

 The Samsung S8 has a Bixby button but Brits won't be able to use it yet
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The Samsung S8 has a Bixby button but Brits won't be able to use it yet

"The expansion of Bixby’s voice capabilities is an initial step in the continued roll-out of Bixby functionality.

"In the future, Bixby will have the learning power to offer more intelligent and personalised interactions and seamless connections across more devices."

Creating a competent voice assistant is no simple task.

Google has only just widely launched its own assistant for Apple phones.

 Samsung launched its own Pay feature which lets you buy things using your phone
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Samsung launched its own Pay feature which lets you buy things using your phone

Samsung has previously claimed that Bixby will become far more powerful than Microsoft's Cortana, Apple's Siri and Google assistant.

In a statement, it boldly claimed that “in the future, you would be able to control your air conditioner or TV through Bixby".

“When an application becomes Bixby-enabled, Bixby will be able to support almost every task that the application is capable of performing using the conventional interface (ie touch commands).

“Most existing agents currently support only a few selected tasks for an application and therefore confuse users about what works or what doesn’t work by voice command.

“The completeness property of Bixby will simplify user education on the capability of the agent, making the behaviours of the agent much more predictable.”

Samsung Galaxy S8 owners will be able to use intelligent commands from today.


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Samsung claims that if you take a photo and then tell Bixby to “send the picture just taken to Dad,” Bixby will understand and send the most recent snap to your Dad.

You can create personal voice commands so that if you say "do not disturb" the phone will automatically set an alarm, switch off the sound and turn on the blue light filter for you.

Bixby will improve over time to recognise your personal preferences and ways of speaking.



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