Bixby update is bringing Text Call support in English, custom wake words

2023-02-22

Samsung introduced the Bixby Text Call feature with One UI 5, but that initial version was limited only to Korean. Now the company is updating its virtual assistant to also handle calls in English.

In case you missed this feature, Text Call basically turns voice calls into text chats. It listens to what the other side says and transcribes it into text, then lets you type in a response that will be spoken by the text to speech system. This is similar to Google’s Screen Call feature.

This is handy for environments where you can’t talk, e.g. it’s too noisy or the opposite, you don’t want to bother other people near you. But having an artificial voice that doesn’t sound anything like you may not be the ideal solution.

There is a fix for that, Bixby can learn to imitate your voice – you can record different sentences and let the software create an AI-powered copy. The Bixby Custom Voice Creator is still available in Korean only, however, at least for now. There are plans to use the custom voice in other Samsung apps in the future, so this will go beyond Text Call.

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One neat improvement to Bixby is that now you can set a custom wake word. Previously, you could only use “Hi, Bixby” or just “Bixby”. Once this update hits you will be able to live out your dreams of being Jean-Luc Picard and address your phone as “computer”.

Bixby is getting smarter too and can now understand context that spans different apps. For example, you can ask it to start a workout in Samsung Health and then say “play music for this workout”, the AI will automatically pick songs that fit the type of workout you started. Bixby can work with the Calendar app too and save your schedules for you.

Much of modern AI lives in the cloud and that raises privacy concerns. To address those Samsung has been working on getting commonly used commands to run entirely offline. These include setting a timer, taking a screenshot and turning on the flashlight. AI-based voice dictation is available offline too.

The new features described above are coming to Bixby with a software update that will be released this month. Check this page for more information.