South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said on Tuesday that it has expanded Bixby voice-activated personal assistant mounted on Galaxy S8 series to more than 200 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa.

Bixby - which performs various tasks by recognizing voice commands like Apple Inc.’s Siri - officially debuted in May in Korea, offering Korean language service. In July, Samsung Electronics launched the service in the United States in English. With the latest expansion, the application is now offered to Galaxy S8 users in over 200 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and South Africa, in English or Korean.

More than 1.3 million consumers currently use Bixby in Korean language and about 250 million voice orders have been made, according to the company.

“The latest expansion of Bixby’s voice capabilities is an initial step in the continued rollout of Bixby functionality,” said Rhee In-jong, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile communications business. “In the future, Bixby will have the learning power to offer more intelligent and personalized interactions and seamless connections across more devices.”

Samsung Electronics also plans to enable the voice-activated personal assistant feature that is currently loaded in the Galaxy S8 series in its Galaxy Note 8 that is scheduled to be unveiled in New York on Wednesday, local time. Users of Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus in the meantime can initiate Bixby’s voice capabilities by pressing the dedicated button on the left hand side of the device or make commands by saying “Hi Bixby.”

By Seo Dong-cheol

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]