After many rumours and leaks about a promising voice assistant, Samsung finally launched Bixby AI assistant with the Samsung Galaxy S8[1] and Samsung Galaxy S8+[2] devices earlier in April this year. However, it surprisingly announced that the support for English voice commands will be added later on for US users, and that support still hasn’t arrived yet. The company has been updating the service with new banking features[3] and more, but Bixby Voice is something that most users in most countries are hoping for. In any case, Samsung still thinks Bixby has potential over Google Assistant, and has rolled out Bixby support for the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017)[4] that has just been launched in South Korea, hinting that mid-range smartphones may also be getting support for the AI assistant in the future.
To recall, the Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) was launched in January[5] in international markets, arrived in India in March[6], and has just been released in the South Korean market as well. Android Authority reports[7] that all the specifications and features are identical to the device launched internationally, except for the added support of Bixby. Furthermore, there is no hardware button for Bixby on board, and there’s no support for Bixby Voice as well. This could mean that Samsung looks to bring the stripped-down Bixby version, the one without Bixby Voice and a hardware button, to mid-range Samsung devices as well.
To recall, the stripped-down Bixby version was also integrated into the Galaxy Note FE (the re-launched Note 7 in South Korea)[8] as well. Going by the trend, it could just be a South Korea thing of launching the base Bixby...