Samsung Introduces Bixby Marketplace

Samsung is introducing a marketplace for Bixby, the company’s voice assistant, despite its relatively unknown name when stacked against the likes of Alexa, Siri and Cortana.

The Bixby marketplace will be available in the United States and South Korea, and customers can download several different services to customize Bixby, according to reports.

Bixby apps are being called capsules by the company and they include Spotify, iHeartRadio, NPR, Yelp and Google Maps. Also in the marketplace are things like staff picks, reviews and different categories based on the capsule someone would want. Users in the appropriate countries can launch the marketplace by pressing the key for Bixby and then swiping left.

Users can pick an app as a preferred choice for specific requests. For example, someone could ask Bixby for a ride, and then the user can pick an app to always complete that particular request in the future. Samsung plans to eventually release the much-delayed Galaxy Home smart speaker as an alternative to Amazon and Google’s devices, but the company has yet to announce a Bixby home hub that would control a smart home.

In other Samsung news, earlier this year it collaborated with Mastercard to research and develop ways for people to verify their digital identity on mobile devices.

In a press release, Mastercard said that as it stands people have to manage multiple passwords and documents to ensure their identifying data and money remains safe. They are repeatedly required to offer up personal information to numerous agents. The more it is shared, the greater the risk to their security. Mastercard and Samsung are aiming to solve that problem with their new alliance.

“Our digital and physical lives are merging and we need a digital identity solution that reflects this reality,” Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard, said in the press release. “Without control over how their data is used, people rely on outdated systems that can compromise their security. Our collaboration with Samsung advances a digital identity solution that is bound to a trusted device — the mobile phone — which is used by millions of people every day.”