Once more, it appears that Samsung remains firm with “no intention” of discontinuing Bixby.
What you should be aware of:
– A social media update brought attention to Samsung’s alleged redesign of the pop-up bar for its AI, Bixby, in One UI 8.5.
– The company is said to be modifying the Bixby bar to resemble Gemini to some extent, but with a blue/purple gradient backdrop.
– Samsung has been enhancing Bixby over the past year, incorporating generative AI, improved hands-free features, and the capacity to manage intricate, multi-step tasks.
Bixby serves as Samsung’s proprietary AI assistant, and it appears the company is not finished refining the software.
Additional leaked details emerging from Samsung’s internal One UI 8.5 testing might have unveiled something fresh for Bixby (via SammyGuru). The SamMobile X account shared several images from the software, displaying a supposed design modification for the pop-up Bixby bar on Galaxy devices. For both the light and dark mode pop-up bars, Samsung is allegedly seeking to bestow a rolling, gradient blue/purple illumination.
Significantly, it appears Samsung is profoundly transforming the bar’s overall internal design.
At present, the bar showcases Bixby’s logo on the far left along with a section for what you’re articulating to the AI or what you’re inputting (if you click the keyboard icon on the far right). According to SamMobile’s post on X, Samsung’s new Bixby bar is entirely streamlined, somewhat reminiscent of Google’s Gemini. In the test, the right side displays a waveform, signifying it’s attentive to the user’s query or directive.
The publication speculates that there’s additional functionality planned for One UI 8.5 and Bixby, although it remains unclear due to the early stage of development. It mentions that Samsung might allow Bixby to manage a Galaxy device’s “automation and ecosystem” controls with more exclusivity.
Samsung & Bixby continue their journey together
Samsung and Bixby have traversed a path together, one that the company expresses no desire to abandon. Earlier in 2024, Samsung hinted at a significant AI reinvention for Bixby, an upgrade inspired by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The company was focused on integrating LLM technology and generative AI into Bixby to ensure it stays competitive with advancements from other firms.
That substantial upgrade was released last fall, but it was limited to users in China. What we eagerly anticipated was Bixby’s next-gen enhancements for the Galaxy S25 series earlier this year. The teaser demonstrated Bixby’s ability to perform more complex tasks and instructions involving several steps. Users could instruct the AI to search the web for information and save that data in different apps for later access.
Now, we are witnessing Samsung’s sustained commitment to Bixby, as the company seems unwilling to part ways with it. Beyond further hands-free-oriented updates and enhancing it with generative AI alongside an ability to manage complex tasks, One UI 8.5 seems poised to push the boundaries further. The pressing question is whether this redesign of the pop-up bar constitutes all that we can expect after a year of updates.
We might discover more once the (speculated) One UI 8.5 beta program kicks off, if indeed that’s the direction we’re heading later this autumn.
