Samsung Galaxy S8's AI-Based Virtual Assistant Will Reportedly Be Integrated With Native Apps

If 2016 has shown us anything, it's that artificial intelligence has come a long way. Google dominated this sphere with the launch of Assistant with its Pixel smartphones and it looks like Samsung is up next with its own virtual assistant. The company is reportedly planning on extending the services of its AI assistant to all native apps on board the Galaxy S8.

Samsung earlier confirmed that the upcoming Galaxy S8 will feature an AI assistant. Sammobile has now reported that that the company will use its new virtual assistant, called Bixby, in mostly all the native apps that will come pre-installed in the Galaxy S8.

The South Korean consumer electronics giant pushed its AI development after the South Korean giant acquired Viv Labs, a US-based artificial-intelligence software company. The developers at Viv Labs also founded Siri, Apple's voice-based digital assistant. It was further reported in late November that Samsung's AI assistant will have male and female voice called Bixby and Kestra, respectively.

Samsung will likely replace S Voice with a more powerful, intelligent assistant. The new Viv-based voice assistant will try to compete with Google's Assistant and Apple's Siri with a system-wide reach and an API open for third party developers. "For example, it might be come in handy inside the Gallery app where you can ask Bixby to show you pictures and videos that satisfy particular criteria (similar to Google Photos and or Apple's Photos app in iOS 10)," reads Sammobile's report. To incorporate Bixby more naturally, Samsung will also update its native apps with a new UI.

According to the most recent rumour, the Galaxy S8 may pack a whopping 8GB of RAM (using Samsung's 10nm process). Earlier rumours suggest the Galaxy S8 may ditch the 3.5mm jack and may integrate an optical fingerprint scanner, among other things.