- Samsung has shown off a next-gen version of Bixby
- For now it is exclusive to China
- The upgrade makes Bixby more similar to Gemini or ChatGPT
Samsung is upgrading Bixby to better compete in the age of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Apple Intelligence: the company just unveiled a next-generation Bixby app powered by LLM (large language model) AI.
This news comes from SamMobilereporting on the launch of the foldable Samsung W25 and Samsung W25 Flip. The new phones are similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6, although they are exclusive to China.
This new and improved Bixby is also exclusive to these devices and to China, at least for the time being. It’s not clear how long it will take for the upgrade to reach the best Samsung phones in the rest of the world, although Samsung certainly wants to bring its best AI technology to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
Samsung has of course gone all-in on AI over the past year – although the Galaxy AI features hint more at Google Gemini than Bixby – and we heard back in July that the Samsung AI Assistant was in line for a boost in ChatGPT style.
What the next generation of Bixby can do
According to Samsung, the next generation of Bixby will be able to understand “complex user instructions” that combine multiple commands into one sentence, and will be able to extract information from what’s on the screen (such as maps or photos).
We also have a more modern interface to look forward to when this new Bixby shows up outside of China, giving Bixby a better chance to seriously compete with all the other AI assistants it will face.
In one of the demos Samsung showed off, you can ask the next generation of Bixby what to wear based on the current weather. It can also show you step-by-step how to do something on your phone (like add a watermark to an image), and remember the context of what you’ve already talked about.
Text and voice input are both supported and Bixby can be summoned from any screen and app on a phone. Expect it to join the other Galaxy AI features in more regions soon – possibly when One UI 7 rolls out early next year.