Samsung opens its Bixby assistant to external developers

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Samsung has decided to give the latest boost to its virtual assistant Bixby, allowing its use to external developers which allows it to be integrated into other connected devices besides their phones.

At the Developers Conference yesterday we saw Samsung's first phone with a folding screen, the presentation of the new One UI custom interface and the official date on which Android 9.0 Pie will arrive to the flagships of the brand. Among these developments is the arrival of Bixby to any device or appliances, on the way to the smart home.

It was the step that this virtual assistant needed to enter to compete directly with the most famous ones like Cortana of Google, Siri of Apple or Alexa of Amazon. Developers of other companies and manufacturers of devices with IoT connection will be able to personalize interactions with Bixby and add it or its different devices in the future.

You can now deactivate the Bixby button completely

To facilitate this function the company has announced the creation of Bixby Developer Studio, a portal where you can find all the tools and documentation to build with this assistant. By 2019 it is planned to open a platform with all the services that have been created.

During the conference they showed all the capabilities that Bixby has acquired, such as helping the user to book a hotel stay. In addition, this assistant will become bilingual, learning to speak in Spanish, Italian, German and French in the coming months.

So far in addition to Samsung phones, the only device where we could find Bixby was the Galaxy Home, an intelligent speaker that caught the attention at its launch months ago by the curious design. However, with this news Bixby users can communicate with him on other devices such as televisions, speakers of other brands, thermostats or even cars.