South Korea's Samsung Electronics is planning to launch an English version of its artificial intelligence (AI)-based voice assistance programme Bixby later this month.
The English version of Bixby, an advanced voice recognition system that comes on the Galaxy S8 and its variant Galaxy S8 Plus, is likely to be launched in the US and taken to other English-speaking countries, Yonhap news agency reported.
According to a report in The Verge, only a limited number of people will receive this early access, Samsung says, so there are no guarantees even if you sign up. This early access will let users send a text, change their settings, or make phone calls with their voice.
Bixby boasts of "deep-learning" AI technology, allowing it to better communicate with users as it accumulates data.
Samsung reportedly began to recruit volunteers for a pre-test of Bixby this week, according to industry sources.
Anyone who has either of Samsung's latest phones can apply through Samsung's US website.
Samsung had planned to launch the English version at the end of May but it was put off due to problems with language testing.
Samsung had announced between the devices’ announcement and ship date that they would be launching with an incomplete version of Bixby, due to issues with the English language version. The Bixby that did arrive on the device did have some tricks up its sleeves like image recognition and barcode scanning, but was mostly incomplete.
Similar to Apple's Siri, Bixby is the latest creation that Samsung banks on to reclaim its edge as the world's top smartphone maker after it suffered a blow to its sales and reputation due to the unsuccessful Galaxy Note 7 that had battery problems.
Samsung has reportedly already expanded the assistant beyond its Galaxy devices. Last month, it started adding Bixby to its line of smart refrigerators.
(With IANS inputs)