Samsung is building a smartwatch that you can speak to – and it’ll talk back
SAMSUNG is planning to launch a new smartwatch with its very own voice assistant that you can talk to.
Unlike its previous timepieces, the new wearable won't be called a Gear watch – neither will it boast Google's Assistant AI or Amazon's Alexa – but it will land alongside the new Galaxy Note 9 smartphone next month.
Instead, it will be dubbed the Galaxy Watch and mark the smartwatch debut of the firm's Bixby digital assistant – the same know-it-all that lives in Samsung smartphones since the Galaxy S8.
The AI will replace the S Voice function from the £299 Gear S3 on the upcoming device, according to .
After a bumpy launch last April, Bixby will get a new lick of paint with the release of the Note 9 in August.
Bixby 2.0, which will also feature on the Galaxy Watch, will boast better natural language processing, faster responses to your queries and better results in noisy environments.
Other features may include more conversational commands and the ability to interact with multiple users.
And lord knows it's in need of an update. Simply put, the AI lacks the smarts and functionality offered by its rivals.
Like Alexa and Google Assistant, you activate Bixby by uttering a voice command: in this case, "Hi Bixby".
For its part, Samsung has for the bot, which will leap beyond mobiles and smartwatches and into all of the company's devices (think TVs, fridges, washing machines) by 2020.
So there's a lot riding on its upcoming update.
As for the Galaxy Watch, there's little info floating about on its specs.
Sammobile claims there won't be an extra Bixby button on the wearable – with a home button activating the helper instead, along with the aforementioned voice command.
Samsung has played it safe in terms of hardware upgrades of late, favouring subtle changes on the S9 and Note 8 over major about-turns. And the same could hold true for the Galaxy Watch.
That means it could retain the Gear S3's round face, GPS, heart rate monitor, water resistance, NFC, activity tracker, and (in some cases) LTE.
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The S3 also came in two looks: the sporty "Frontier" version and the smarter "Classic" finish.
Samsung will launch the Galaxy Note 9 on August 9 at its Unpacked event in Brooklyn, New York. And if these reports are accurate, it will reveal the Galaxy Watch alongside its new flagship.
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