Bixby voice control feature for Galaxy S8 now available in South Korea

When the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus launched in South Korea last month, they didn’t have the full version of Bixby on board. Samsung’s digital assistant offered the Vision, Home, and Reminder features, while the voice control functionality wasn’t available from the start.

The voice control feature for Bixby is now finally available, as Samsung has rolled it out via a software update to its flagship devices in South Korea. This means you can now control certain functionalities of your smartphone with your voice including opening apps, setting reminders, and so on. It works more or less the same as the Google Assistant, which is also found on the Galaxy S8 series.

The voice control feature of Bixby currently isn’t available in the US. Samsung says that it should make its way to the flagship devices “later this spring”, although an exact date has not been given yet. The digital assistant will then make its way to other countries around the world as well, with the release in Germany scheduled for the last quarter of the year.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus have been selling great both in South Korea as well as in the US. In Samsung’s home country the two devices received over one million pre-orders, while in the US the pre-order numbers were 30 percent higher when compared with those of the Galaxy S7 series.

Despite its success, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus do have a number of problems users have been complaining about. These include the facial recognition feature that can be tricked with a photo and the red screen found on some devices.