Bixby may be even better than we hoped

By Daniel Bader
last updated

Samsung's Bixby assistant has enjoyed a rough road to stardom, but now that it's in an open preview for U.S. Galaxy S8 users, we're starting to get the impression that the wait may have been worth it.

One of our forum members, erasat, sums things up nicely for us:

A lot better than expected, so far the commands are great, I love the easiness creating shortcuts, it works great with a location reminder that btw was very easy and fast to create, I'm already in level 5 with 20 minutes of teaching it my voice and most commands. You can turn the phone off, reboot reboot in safe mode, etc... in a summary most of the settings commands are available. If you try to...

erasat

The one thing that people keep pointing out about Bixby is how different it is from Google Assistant and Siri, and how capable it is at reproducing what your fingers do to navigate through your phone. Stringing commands together in natural language makes a lot of sense when you realize just how complex some of the apps are that we use on a regular basis.

One member, GRUNT11B, points out that Bixby is better than Google Assistant and Siri for a number of tasks:

I've been at it comparing the same commands with both Bixby and Google Assistant. And can say bixby is winning. And that says a lot as it's still in beta. From system settings to sharing photos. You can get more of a true hands free experience with Bixby.

GRUNT11B

Another poster, Sapient, isn't quite sold on Bixby just yet, claiming that some things will just be done faster using fingers — but there is plenty of room for improvement given that the service is still in preview in the U.S.

I really want to like it, and I've found a couple of things to be cool, but mostly I find it irritating and slow. I think it is super cool to say "Open camera and take a slow motion video". I find it really irritating to say "Send a message to Pedro" and all I get is a list of apps to open, or maybe a list of the one person in my contacts named Pedro. Where I think it could shine for me is...

Sapient

What are your impressions of Bixby so far? Like it? Hate it?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Daniel Bader
Daniel Bader

Daniel Bader was a former Android Central Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor for iMore and Windows Central. 

27 Comments
  • Only issue I've really disliked so far is waking it with just voice isn't nearly as responsive as Google Assistant.
  • Loving it here too. A bit slower on the voice recognition and some times it says try again later (which usually work when I try again immediately after) but yes VERY impressive and I love the fact that it can change settings and reboot the phone and do all the other things in settings and with voice that assistant nor Siri can. They can do basic tasks and set alarms etc etc but Bixby is very integrated into the settings of the phone and has capabilities to turn most things on or off including all the other stuff that Siri and Google Assistant do so once it speeds up and gets even better it'll definitely be my number one go-to assistant moving forward and it's only in beta so it's only going to get better
  • It's unfortunate that to use it you have to agree to all the privacy policies on the set up screen. I'm OK with most of them, except "send information to content providers". INRIX for traffic looks very useful to me, like how Google Now does. However, I use neither 4Square nor Uber. I can't set it up unless I agree to them all. It would be nice that if I don't agree to the last one, I just wouldn't get those features turned on, but everything else would work.
  • I agree with it being slow and sometimes showing the try again later screen. It definitely can shine where Assistant can't, but that goes both ways. Once it becomes more responsive and doesn't take as long to start and actually do the task it'll be great. I already love it but it does have room for improvement. Good thing it's still beta though, means it can only get better. And it's already pretty damn good.
  • Had to turn it off...It kept getting constantly woken up while listening to the radio/podcasts. Annoying
    Also tried a couple of things like Navigate home...nothing..went back to my home screen..didn't open maps. Useless for me so far...maybe it will get better.
  • Was working great up until yesterday and today. Seems like it's down now
  • This is the best thing that ever happened since TeamViewer for everyone who is the "tech guy" in the family and has to help almost everyone with their phone. It can be quite tough to navigate an average user through settings and try to explain which buttons they've to press. If I can tell them "hold the button on the side and say xyz" to fix a wrong setting they have this is such a big time saver and bless.
  • I feel like "even better than we hoped" indicates everyone was sitting around, excitedly hoping this was going to be awesome. I'm pretty sure nobody was doing that. At best, I think most people who even cared at all just hoped it wouldn't suck completely and be a waste of a button on the side of their phone. So "even better than we hoped" isn't a very high bar above "I hope it isn't terrible."
  • I was hoping it would be awesome.
  • It's only good for stuff like changing settings, setting alarms, etc. It's horrible to do anything else. This is honestly the first article I've seen that doesn't basically trash it.
  • This is directly from owners that are using it, not the AC staff.
  • What do you mean doing anything else? From my experience it does everything that Google Assistant can do but better and in more detail. It even works better than Google with its own app YouTube.
  • Can it turn on my lights?
  • Gotta love self created narratives. Everyone is "trashing" Bixby? Where?
  • All over the internet. This is actually the first article I read that shines a positive light on it. So much so, it almost made me want to reactivate it. Almost.
  • Not interested, just glad I am able to turn off the bixby button - no more accidental pushes.
  • For a device WITH a HARDWARE button...start up is SSSSLLLLOOOOOWWWWW. Granted Google Home has to be launched from holding "home", it is LISTENING automatically. Samsung needs to remove the delay for MIC access to make Bixby somewhat helpful vs S-Voice, Smart View etc. If an OEM is going to FORCE the placement of a button, whatever that button does should work flawlessly, launch FAST and be at little somewhat helpful. Now I realize Bixby is still in beta! Whenever I launch (via voice) or touch, there is a pronounced delay in the start of listening. THIS MUST BE FIXED.
  • I just upset that I signed up early and still don't have Bixby Voice.
  • Hang it up jezzus! Disable this bloat and make it a convenience key - these redundant apps are getting ridiculous!! KEYᵒⁿᵉ
  • I think Bixby sucks nuts.... can never understand simple phrases like turn on bluetooth... I recorded my voice and it still can never understand what I ask..... although I never use these voice things on phones Google works much better than Bixby
  • And not to mention that it doesn't work while phone is locked with a password or fingerprint or whatever u have set.... the point of.Bixby and all the others us for hands free...so what's the point if ur phone is locked??
  • It's in beta...
  • Still sucks nuts.... even Google doesn't work while phone is locked
  • I'm actually pretty impressed with it thus far. Different strokes... They were never going to please everyone.
  • Since when? Google works just fine when locked.
  • Samsung app pushing is ridiculous, I won't buy another of their phones ever. I don't use Apple, so I can't compare Siri, but Samsung and Google's previous attempts are severely lacking. I have tried to use Cortana only on my S5A, and my phone forces either Google Assistant or S-Voice on my bluetooth connection while driving. Can't tell for sure which it is, my settings say Cortana, but it is NOT, and it's TOTAL CRAP. It never, and I mean NEVER gets a name right when I ask it to call or text someone. Cortana on my L950 works dam near perfect, and even prompts (on Bluetooth) when I receive a text. Samsung has basically locked out Cortana, so I can only use it phone in hand. Or maybe it's Google? I don't know, like I said, my settings say one thing, and the phone does another. For this reason, and my history with their phones bloat/lag-ware in general, I'll never buy another one. I don't care how great they claim Bixby to be. That and I think the name is dumb. Does anyone else use Cortana on other Android devices, and have it work properly on Bluetooth? I want to go LG or Moto for my next phone, but I'm having trouble pulling the plug as Google Assistant doesn't work for me (or does it???), or if it won't let me go all in on Cortana.
  • I doubt it