Individuals patiently looking forward to the release of Samsung’s Bixby, the company’s mobile virtual assistant that will go head-to-head with Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa in the U.S., will need to wait a bit longer, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The highly anticipated English version of the platform was slated for a May release date, to go along with the Galaxy S8. The smartphone was released in April, forcing developers to fast-track the final stages of deployment.
Now the electronics giant is aiming to release the U.S. version of Bixby this month. No release dates were mentioned for other English-speaking countries, such as Australia and the U.K.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the platform is having a difficult time handling the English language. In particular, the voice-activated assistant is unable to consistently grasp English syntax and grammar.
“Bixby Voice benefits from time to further enhance natural language understanding, and we are currently growing our user testing in the U.S. to prepare for launch,” said a Samsung spokeswoman in an emailed statement.
Bixby comes with several uses and applications. It can be utilized to recognize images (Bixby Vision), gather news (Bixby Home) and execute basic smartphone commands (Bixby Voice).
It’s important to highlight that Bixby Voice is the only part of the platform that is delayed. Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus owners can use other Bixby features, including Home, Reminders and Camera, while waiting for the release of the voice assistance feature.
It is likely that Bixby will become an integral part of Samsung phones. Individuals who own older Galaxy devices will need to upgrade their phone to use Bixby. Like Google Assistant, users can activate the feature by pressing the home button.
Bixby is currently compatible with a limited number of Samsung applications.
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