Soon after Samsung launched its Galaxy S8 last week, Microsoft announced that it will launch a Microsoft edition Samsung Galaxy S8 on April 21. Apart from the same solid specifications, Microsoft has hinted that its own version of Samsung Galaxy S8 will come preloaded with a bunch of Microsoft apps including Cortana which is pretty interesting to note as the Galaxy S8 will also swank Samsung’s own AI-powered Bixby and Google Assistant. If you are not aware, all the three are basically a personal assistant which can help you do things with your smartphone with just a voice command.
The game of personal voice assistant first began in 2011 when Apple launched its iPhone 4S with Siri and soon after Google’s immediate response was in the name Google Now which was not that interactive back then but did the job. Later, Microsoft entered the game with its own version of intelligent personal assistant – Cortana and last year Google went full throttle with its AI-powered Google Assistant which was initially only available to Pixel devices. While the chances of Apple bringing Siri to other platforms is as bleak as a sugar grain, Samsung Galaxy S8 will have Cortana, Google Assistant and probably the most talked feature about the new S8, Bixby.
Samsung seems to have rely heavily on its new personal assistant Bixby, so much so that the South Korean giant actually gave a dedicated button on the side, for the personal assistant. Unlike Cortana or Google Assistant, Bixby is deeply engraved to both software and hardware which is why it will surely have an upper hand on the Galaxy S8. Apart from being a voice assistant, Bixby will show up relevant cards on the left side of your home screen just like Google Now does on the Google Now launcher. Further, Bixby can also dive into your camera and perform image recognition similar to Google Goggles. Whereas Google Assistant has been pushed to some select devices via Google Play Services which is surely better than an App but not when a company sells a device with its own assistant. Lastly, Cortana will actually come as an app on the Microsoft Edition Samsung Galaxy S8. But the question is, do we really need three personal assistants on a smartphone? Yes if these can win user’s trust.
Of Course, each one of them has its pros and cons but having three personal assistants questing for a single command is actually too funny. Now, obviously all of them have their separate hot words for waking up but just imagine, what if you wanted to throw up a command say ‘Call Mom’ and all the three assistant wakes up and fight to win the race. You cannot disagree the fact that if this happens, you are bound to feel special.
On the other hand, it is surely worth thinking if this the future? A lot of companies recently have gone on record claiming that Artificial Intelligence is the future but can it replace human intelligence? Will there be a time when we can do absolutely anything on our smartphone without touching it even for once? Well, the answer is surely positive. The way things are growing and the amount of time these companies are dedicating to AI can definitely make this possible. Even today, a lot of these assistants can perform various functions which would once consume a lot of time to perform. What do you think? Do you use any of these personal assistants on your smartphone? Let us know in the comments.