Samsung introduced the Bixby Text Call feature with One UI 5, but that initial release was limited to Korean only. Now the company is updating its virtual assistant to handle calls in English as well.
In case you missed this feature, Text Call basically turns voice calls into text chats. It listens to what the other party is saying and transcribes it into text, then lets you type a response that will be spoken by the text-to-speech system. It is similar to Google’s Screen Call feature.
This is useful for environments where you can’t talk, such as it’s too loud or vice versa, you don’t want to disturb other people near you. But having an artificial voice that doesn’t sound like you might not be the ideal solution.
There is a solution for this, Bixby can learn to imitate your voice: you can record different sentences and let the software create an AI-based copy. However, Bixby Custom Voice Creator is still only available in Korean, at least for now. There are plans to use custom voice in other Samsung apps in the future, so this will go beyond text calling.
A clear improvement to Bixby is that you can now set a custom wake word. Previously, you could only use “Hi, Bixby” or just “Bixby”. Once this update is available, you will be able to fulfill your dreams of being Jean-Luc Picard and call your phone “computer”.
Bixby is also getting smarter and can now understand context across different apps. For example, you can ask it to start a workout in Samsung Health and then say “play music for this workout”, the AI will automatically choose songs that fit the type of workout you’ve started. Bixby can also work with the Calendar app and save your schedules for you.
Much of modern AI lives in the cloud, which raises privacy concerns. To address these issues, Samsung has been working on getting commonly used commands to run completely offline. These include setting a timer, taking a screenshot, and turning on the flashlight. AI-powered voice dictation is also available offline.
The new features described above are coming to Bixby with a software update that will be released this month. Check this page for more information.
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