Samsung Bixby Assistant Will Soon Support Skills From Third-Party Developers

Samsung's own Bixby assistant has been around for a few years now, but it still trails far behind Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant in usage. This is due to a number of reasons, including poor performance and a lack of features, but also because of Alexa and Assistant's third-party support, which has resulted in widespread integration with other apps and services. It now looks like Samsung is ready to have Bixby take a stab at learning new skills too.

At next week's Samsung Developer Conference, the will be announcing new third-party integrations, dubbed "capsules," for Bixby, says the Wall Street Journal. It's not clear exactly which services will already be on board, but as it's a developer conference Samsung will likely be trying to attract third-parties to build skills for Bixby.

Samsung has been building Bixby into a number of its devices like smartphones and TVs, but the company's key product to keeping up with Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant is the upcoming Galaxy Home speaker. While it was revealed three months ago, we still don't know a release date or pricing for the Galaxy Home, nor a full list of its capabilities.

If Samsung wants the Galaxy Home to compete with other leading smart speakers, it needs to be equipped with an assistant that can handle a range of tasks, like ordering food or requesting an Uber. We'll see next week if Samsung is able to lure developers to the Bixby platform, or if the assistant will continue to struggle.

SOURCE Wall Street Journal