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Remember S Voice? Samsung is finally shutting it down.
Samsung introduced its Bixby voice assistant back in 2017, and it’s served as the first-party assistant on Samsung gadgets ever since. But this wasn’t Samsung’s first voice assistant, as that would be S Voice.
Unfortunately for anyone who was still using S Voice, TizenHelp reports that Samsung is now killing the legacy service. This isn’t the only Samsung service to be killed off, as it’s also shuttering Find My Car, Car Mode, and MirrorLink functionality.
S Voice debuted on the Galaxy S3 in 2012, coming at roughly the same time as Google Voice Search and Google Now. But Google streaked ahead by launching the Assistant in 2016, offering faster, more accurate, and more diverse interactions.
Samsung responded with Bixby in 2017, launching alongside the Galaxy S8 series (and appearing on all later flagships). The firm later followed up with a Bixby 2.0 release that offered more supported languages and better natural language recognition.
We’re more surprised that Samsung didn’t shut down S Voice sooner. Nevertheless, those still using older phones and wearables with the service will either need to switch to Bixby or another voice assistant.
It wouldn’t be the first major voice assistant to be killed off on Android either, as Microsoft confirmed late last year that it was ending support for Cortana on the platform too.