We’re likely at least a few months away from Samsung’s Galaxy S8 being officially announced, but this weekend Samsung confirmed one feature that’ll be included with its upcoming flagship Android phone.
The Galaxy S8 will include a new artificial intelligence digital assistant, Samsung confirmed during a recent briefing. This assistant will be powered by Viv, the AI platform made by Viv Labs, Inc., a company formed that was formed by the creators of Apple’s Siri and was recently acquired by Samsung.
“Developers can attach and upload services to our agent,” a Samsung executive said of the upcoming digital assistant. While Samsung didn’t go into too many details about its new assistant, the company did confirm that the assistant will work with third-party services.
Digital assistants are big in mobile, with Apple, Google, and Microsoft each having their own offering. Now we’re seeing these assistants expand to other devices, like Amazon’s Alexa on the Echo, Google’s Assistant on Home, Microsoft’s Cortana on PCs, and Apple is even rumored to be cooking up its own Siri-based device.
Because its biggest competitors have their own assistants that are expanding into more devices throughout the home, it’s no surprise that Samsung wants to use its recent acquisition of Viv to create a new assistant of its own. Not only could Samsung integrate into its Galaxy phones, but into its range of home appliances, too, helping to boost the assistant’s adoption.
