Bixby (software)

Bixby ( RR: bikseubi ) is a virtual assistant developed by Samsung Electronics, launched in 2017 as a replacement of the S Voice assistant. It runs on various Samsung branded appliances, primarily mobile devices but also some refrigerators. The suite includes a voice assistant known as Bixby Voice, as well as contextual search and visual search features including tools like Bixby Vision, an augmented reality camera app, Bixby Text Call, a handsfree call answer feature, and others like Bixby Routines (now named Modes and Routines), and Bixby Home (now replaced by Samsung Free).

Bixby Voice
Bixby can get tailored information about the weather, reminders of meetings, news articles, and others using artificial intelligence. It can learn individual voices, so it can personalize its answers.

Bixby Vision
Bixby Vision is an augmented-reality camera that can identify objects in real-time and potentially offer the user to purchase them online, translate text, read QR codes, and recognize landmarks.

Bixby Home
"Bixby Home" (which has been recently replaced with "Samsung Free" in the latest One UI software update) was a vertically scrolling list of information that Bixby can interact with, for example weather, fitness activity and buttons for controlling their smart home gadgets. "Bixby Touch" makes recommendations based on intelligent recognition. You can easily access services such as translation, online shopping, and media by touching the screen. This app is still in its development period and has not been publicly released yet.

History
On 20 March 2017, Samsung announced the voice-powered digital assistant named "Bixby". It was introduced alongside the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the Samsung Galaxy Tab A during the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2017 event;  although released for these devices, it could also be sideloaded on older Galaxy devices running Android Nougat. A while before the phone's release, the Bixby Button was reprogrammable and could be set to open other applications or assistants, such as Google Assistant. However, near the phone's release, this ability was removed with a firmware update, but can be remapped using third-party apps.

Bixby in Korean was launched on 1 May 2017 (KST). Bixby Voice was intended to be made available in the US later that spring, however, the release of the English version was postponed as Samsung had problems getting Bixby to fully understand the language. The English version was finally rolled out in July 2017 and later that year followed by a Chinese language version.

In October 2017, Samsung announced the release of Bixby 2.0 during its annual developer conference in San Francisco. The new version was rolled out across the company's line of connected products, including smartphones, TVs, and refrigerators. Also, third parties are allowed to develop applications for Bixby using the Samsung Developer Kit. Bixby 3.0 was released with One UI 3 at the start of 2021. With version 3.0, Home and Reminders features were separated from Bixby.

In June 2021, screenshots surfaced for a replacement for Bixby. The three-dimensional virtual assistant, Sam, was popular on social media though it was not intended as a replacement for Bixby.

Most recently, in July 2024, Samsung confirmed that it plans to launch an upgraded version of Bixby later this year. This new Bixby will be powered by Samsung's proprietary large language model (LLM) technology, promising a significant boost to Bixby's capabilities with the help of generative AI.

Regions and languages
As of April 2018, Bixby is available in over 195 countries, but only in Korean, English (American), and Chinese (Mandarin). The limitation is that the models not intended for the Japanese market, like S10e, are not allowed to login to Bixby services from Japan; therefore Bixby becomes blocked. The choice of languages has since expanded: Samsung has deployed Bixby's voice command function in French, and on 20 February 2019 Samsung announced the addition of further languages: English (British), German, Italian and Spanish (Spain). On 22 February 2020, Samsung announced the addition of Portuguese (Brazil), for Galaxy S10 & Note10, in Beta, and later for other models.

Flagship smartphones and tablets

 * Galaxy S
 * Samsung Galaxy S7 (including S7 Edge and S7 Active)
 * Samsung Galaxy S8 (including S8+ and S8 Active)
 * Samsung Galaxy S9 (including S9+)
 * Samsung Galaxy S10 (including S10+, S10e, S10 5G and S10 Lite)
 * Samsung Galaxy S20 (including S20+, S20 Ultra, and S20 FE)
 * Samsung Galaxy S21 (including S21+, S21 Ultra, and S21 FE)
 * Samsung Galaxy S22 (including S22+ and S22 Ultra)
 * Samsung Galaxy S23 (including S23+, S23 Ultra and S23 FE)
 * Samsung Galaxy S24 (including S24+ and S24 Ultra)


 * Galaxy Tab S
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab S4
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 (including Tab S6 Lite)
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 (including Tab S7+ and Tab S7 FE)
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 (including Tab S8+ and Tab S8 Ultra)
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 (including Tab S9+, Tab S9 Ultra and Tab S9 FE | FE+)


 * Galaxy Note
 * Samsung Galaxy Note FE (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only [Vision available on Android Oreo]; S Voice used instead)
 * Samsung Galaxy Note 8
 * Samsung Galaxy Note 9
 * Samsung Galaxy Note 10 (including Note 10+, Note 10 5G, Note 10+ 5G and Note 10 Lite)
 * Samsung Galaxy Note 20 (including Note 20 Ultra, Note 20 5G and Note 20 Ultra 5G)


 * Galaxy Fold / Z
 * Samsung Galaxy Fold
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
 * Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5

Mid-range smartphones and tablets

 * Galaxy A
 * Samsung Galaxy A6/A6+ (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision)
 * Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) (available to users in South Korea only; Bixby Home and Reminder only)
 * Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only)
 * Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) (including A8 Star; Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision only; S Voice used instead)
 * Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018)
 * Samsung Galaxy A20 (Bixby Home and Service)
 * Samsung Galaxy A21s
 * Samsung Galaxy A30s (Bixby Home, Vision, Reminder and Routines)
 * Samsung Galaxy A40 (Bixby Home and Reminder)
 * Samsung Galaxy A41 (Bixby Home, Vision, Routines and Reminder)
 * Samsung Galaxy A50 (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision, Reminder and Routines)
 * Samsung Galaxy A50s (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision, Reminder and Routines)
 * Samsung Galaxy A51
 * Samsung Galaxy A52
 * Samsung Galaxy A52s
 * Samsung Galaxy A53 5G
 * Samsung Galaxy A70 (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision and Reminder)
 * Samsung Galaxy A70s (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision and Reminder)
 * Samsung Galaxy A71
 * Samsung Galaxy A72
 * Samsung Galaxy A73 5G
 * Samsung Galaxy A80 (Bixby Home, Voice, Vision, Reminder and Routines)
 * Samsung Galaxy A34 5G
 * Samsung Galaxy A54 5G
 * Samsung Galaxy A35 5G
 * Samsung Galaxy A55 5G


 * Galaxy F
 * Samsung Galaxy F62


 * Galaxy Tab A
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (2016) (Bixby Home)
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0 (2017) (Bixby Home and Reminder only)
 * Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.5 (2018) (Bixby Home, Reminder and Vision)


 * Galaxy J
 * Samsung Galaxy J4 (2018) (Bixby Home)
 * Samsung Galaxy J7+ (2017)
 * Samsung Galaxy J6 (2018) (Bixby Vision, Bixby Home and Bixby Reminders)
 * Samsung Galaxy J6+ (2018)


 * Galaxy C
 * Samsung Galaxy C8 (Bixby Home, Reminder and Bixby Vision only)


 * Smart speakers
 * Galaxy Home
 * Galaxy Home Mini


 * Laptops
 * Samsung Galaxy Book series released from May 2021 onwards