Samsung’s Bixby gets support for other third-party apps and devices

Samsung’s digital assistant Bixby gets support for third-party apps and devices. The South Korean manufacturer has announced this at its own developer conference. Developers get the same tools that Samsung uses to develop Bixby functions.

Thanks to the opening up of the SDK and the tools, users should eventually be able to use Bixby for many more different applications than is currently possible. It is still unknown how developers will make use of the possibilities of the digital assistant and what applications there will be.

In addition, hardware makers must be able to build in Bixby, as is already happening with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Speakers and other smart home devices, among others, offer support for the digital assistants from Google and Amazon. Bixby came out a year and a half ago together with the Galaxy S8. Some Samsung smartphones have a button on the left side of the case to start the digital assistant.

In addition, there will be a platform for developers to control Samsung TVs via voice control. Netflix and Spotify, among others, will use it. That will happen from the beginning of next year, the manufacturer says.