Samsung has its own digital assistant named Bixby, but the company adopt a different assistant for its smart TVs next year.
Samsung may announce that it's integrating Google Assistant into its 2019 TV lineup at CES next month. That's according to Variety, which says that Samsung's integration of Google Assistant will likely be similar to LG's functionality, which lets the Google Assistant access weather and calendar as well as control smart home devices.
While Samsung has offered Bixby on several of its Galaxy smartphones and some of its TVs, Bixby's functionality isn't quite at the same level as the Google Assistant. "We are at the very early stage of development for Bixby for TV," said Samsung senior staff engineer James Jung recently. By adding Google Assistant to its 2019 TV models, Samsung can give those TVs the smarts that people are getting accustomed to with their phones and smart speakers.
Today's report also mentions that sound quality will be another major focus of Samsung's 2019 television sets. The company recently registered for several TV audio-related trademarks, including "audio spatial intelligence", "volume intelligence", and "audio scenic intelligence". Samsung will reportedly continue to build out its TV Plus service, too, which offers over-the-top streaming channels.