Looks Like Bixby Isn’t Quite Ready To Ship With The S8

Looks like Samsung’s take on the virtual personal assistant is not quite ready for primetime as of yet — Bixby will not be shipping with Samsung’s widely anticipated release of the Galaxy S8.

When S8 owners fire up the phones on April 21, they will have to content themselves with using Google’s personal assistant for Android — because the Samsung says Bixby will be delayed.

“Key features of Bixby, including Vision, Home and Reminder, will be available with the global launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 on April 21,” Samsung said in a statement. “Bixby Voice will be available in the U.S. on the Galaxy S8 later this spring.”

It seems Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Google Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana can all breath a virtual sigh of relief — as the latest tech heavyweight seeking to tap into the future of gadgets will not be stepping onto the playing field in a week.

And Bixby is supposedly a digital assistant with a different flavor than its competitors — not so much to be used a reference tool (how tall is the Eiffel tower) and more to be used as an assistant for the phone itself. One can tell Bixby to find and send a photo, for example.

But Bixby, it seems, is still be developed — as of last month, the service was still in beta.

Samsung representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment — though Bixby is expected to make its way onto phones later in 2017.