Bixby is the name given to Samsung’s virtual assistant installed on the new Galaxy S8 smartphones, and although it can’t speak English yet, there is evidence it’s quite adept at rapping its native Korean. Videos showing its skills have been posted on YouTube, and have overshadowed other, more standard examples of the assistant’s brand-new voice feature. Plus, in true rap style, in some of the rhymes Bixby allegedly takes a shot at archrival Siri.
One of the lengthier videos gives us more than three minutes of Bixby rapping in a female voice, while a shorter clip from another YouTuber sees the assistant’s male voice take over the rapping duties. According to one Reddit post, this rap includes the phrase, “I am better than Siri.” While such a phrase is sure to have Samsung fans whoop and shout with glee, one could argue that in reality Siri’s grasp of multiple languages, and wider availability, does give Apple’s assistant the edge at the moment.
If you’re grabbing your own Galaxy S8 ready to ask Bixby to belt out a rap, it’s not going to work unless you’re in Korea. Samsung started releasing voice features through an update to its Korean phones this week, and promises English voice support will come during the first half of this year.
Bixby’s voice features are relatively basic at the moment, including bookmarking web pages, sharing photos on social media, taking screenshots, and opening the Bixby Vision feature. A further video shows Bixby performing some actions, such as displaying recently taken pictures and creating an album of the results, plus taking a screenshot and sending it to a contact.
It’s inevitable English-speaking Bixby will do all this for us, but the more pressing question is, will it also rap for us? Most virtual assistants have quirky features like this just waiting to be discovered, as it helps give them a slightly more “human” personality, and encourages exploration. We’ll find out what Bixby can do in the coming months.
