Not once during Samsung’s Unpacked event for the new Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plusdid anyone on stage say the word “Bixby.” Samsung’s virtual assistant — positioned as an alternative to Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri — was never directly brought up over the course of the Note’s introduction and several other product sequences featuring the Galaxy Watch Active 2, Galaxy Tab S6, and other devices. Bixby wasn’t included in any demonstrations of the Note 10’s many new software tricks, productivity enhancements, and features designed with convenience in mind.
It was a remarkable exclusion from Samsung after years of trying to establish Bixby as central to Samsung’s in-house software efforts and AI advancements. The absence was particularly noticeable since at this time last year, Samsung was showcasing Bixby 2.0 on stage in the very same room, listing off all the improvements it had made to the assistant’s smarts and voice command processing. Surely a “Hey Bixby” voice command could’ve been squeezed into the presentation somewhere, right? It never came.
There are other signs that Bixby might be less of a priority for Samsung in 2019. Unlike its last several flagship phones, the Galaxy Note 10 does not include a dedicated Bixby button. Instead, users will be able to trigger Bixby with the power button. But you wouldn’t know it, because this was never shown on stage.
By default, pressing and holding the power button will bring up Bixby — no matter how long you hold it down for. If you thought a standalone Bixby button was annoying before, this out-of-box behavior could be considered even worse. If you want to use the power button to, you know, turn the phone off, you’ll have to disable Bixby altogether. There might be a power/volume button combo that lets you turn off the phone more easily (Apple does this on the iPhone X and later), but Samsung’s default is going to result in more unwanted Bixby interactions and customer frustration.
So Bixby is still alive and well on phones. It’s also on Samsung smartwatches, TVs, and refrigerators. But the Galaxy Home (a Bixby-powered smart speaker similar to the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod) remained absent from the keynote a year after being introduced at Barclays Center in 2018. Samsung missed the Home’s April release target, and most recently the company has claimed it will ship sometime in the third quarterof this year. Maybe so, but this product is taking a long time to the point that it risks turning into Samsung’s AirPower. Having remained a no-show at the Note event, it’s possible we’ll finally hear more about the Galaxy Home at next month’s IFA conference in Berlin. If nothing more is known by then, well…
Bixby was featured during the pre-event videos that were running in the arena even if it didn’t earn a keynote mention. And in fairness, Samsung had a lot of ground to cover: in addition to hardware and buzzy industry topics like 5G, the company discussed a number of partnerships with Microsoft, Under Armour, Discord, and even the UN.
Does a lack of stage time mean Bixby is going anywhere? No, not at all. But it might indicate that Samsung’s assistant is taking a back seat and will become something that’s just sort of there — once you free your Note 10’s power button from it, that is. The people who actually enjoy using Bixby for its deep integration with phone settings and multi-step actions will still have it at their disposal. But for everyone else, Bixby has always felt disposable. Today, it felt like Samsung got the message.
Other things Samsung didn’t mention on stage today:
Why it got rid of the headphone jack on the Note 10. Apple’s “courage” explanation didn’t go over very well, so maybe it’s best to just avoid the subject under the stage lights.
The aforementioned Galaxy Home.
An exact release date for the Galaxy Fold.
“Android.”
