Bixby 2.0 Brings Samsung's Voice Assistant to TVs, Fridges

The next generation of Bixby won't merely live on your smartphone, but every appliance in your home.

Credit: Samsung
Credit: Samsung

Credit: Samsung

That's the future Samsung is planning for version 2.0 of its digital voice assistant, which the company announced Wednesday (Oct. 18) at its developer conference in San Francisco.

Samsung says Bixby 2.0 will be launched across "a variety of devices," from its smart TVs to its refrigerators. Personalization appears to have been a major focus, with the goal of delivering an experience tailored to every individual in the household.

To that end, the new Bixby is reportedly better at understanding natural language and telling apart different voices. Additionally, new deep-linking capabilities should help it better anticipate users' needs.

MORE: Samsung Bixby Review: Tons of Potential, Still a Work in Progress

Bixby 2.0 will also benefit from integration with Viv, the virtual assistant developed by Six Five Labs, a company run by ex-Siri developers that was snapped up by Samsung Electronics in 2016.

Little else is known about Bixby 2.0 at this time, though we expect many of the enhancements to make their way to Samsung's current lineup of Bixby-powered smartphones. Going forward, Samsung's assistant will be the glue that holds its ecosystem of devices together, and so the company will need to ensure a stable, consistent experience across all products. An SDK should be arriving soon for developers, with a full release to the public coming "in the near future."

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