Bixby Vision Changes Could Spell Trouble For Samsung's AI

Bixby is the AI-powered assistant nobody asked for at a time when Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa were already neck and neck in that market. It did bring at least one feature that even Google Assistant has yet to acquire but the rest of its capabilities have mostly duplicated what's already available in more devices and platforms. Now Samsung is retiring some of the features related to its Bixby Vision but while some still remain, it could be a slippery slope.

Bixby's one remaining unique ability is hands-free voice control of apps, something that is only possible if apps opt-in to Bixby's API and integrate such commands. Its other features, like the AR-powered Bixby Vision, you'd also be able to find in Google Lens, Google Assistant, or Amazon's app, just with a few specialized cases here and there.

Some of those specialized cases will be going away, however, as SamMobile reports on the retirement of Places, Makeup, Home Decor, and Styling. The site also notes that other Bixby Vision features in other markets may still be available but only in certain countries and only because Samsung has business obligations with commercial partners for those features. Once those lapse, however, you can expect Samsung to remove them as well.

This isn't the first worrying sign from Samsung regarding Bixby. Although it did recently announce a new set of Bixby-powered AR apps, it has also cut down the number of people working on Bixby, especially those communicating with external developers. It does seem like Samsung is slowly but surely winding down Bixby's features and reach.

It wouldn't really be a surprise considering how Bixby hasn't really compared favorably with the likes of Google Assistant and Alexa. In the end, Samsung might be forced to embrace Google's own AI-powered helper as part of its collaboration with the Android maker. Or it could also cozy up to its best friend Microsoft but Cortana is hardly any better at this point.