One of the biggest questions surrounding Samsung’s Bixby is that when will the company open up the smart assistant to third-party developers. It seems we will have an official answer very soon at SDC 2018.
Bixby to get third-party skills
Samsung is scheduled to host its annual developers conference (SDC) in San Francisco on November 7-8 #SDC18. The event is likely to include talks about Samsung’s advancements in software, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and more. One of major talking points, however, could be third-party integrations for Bixby. The Wall Street Journal reports that Samsung will reveal Bixby “capsules” at the SDC 2018.
Bixby capsules sound to be the third-party skills for the company’s smart assistant. They should work a lot like Google Assistant Actions or Alexa Skills, enabling Bixby to do much more than it can right now.
Opening Bixby to other developers will be crucial for Samsung as it prepares to jump into the smart speakers market with Galaxy Home. Amazon’s Alexa, for instance, lets its users call a cab or order a pizza with a few commands. Bixby is way too far behind, and for it to reach the level of Alexa, only third-party integrations can help.
Samsung’s mobile division CEO, DJ Koh, has previously said that the company will release an SDK and an API for third-party apps on Bixby. The same could happen this week at SDC 2018. If not there, the company has also announced a separate developer event for Bixby on November 20 in Seoul, South Korea. And the Bixby Developer Day will surely be the day Samsung opens more doors for Bixby.
The SDC 2018, meanwhile, kicks-off tomorrow. Samsung’s long-awaited foldable smartphone is expected to make an appearance at the event. Samsung has time and again reiterated its desire to launch a foldable phone that’s worth all the hype. A day’s wait, and we’ll know what the South Korean giant has up its sleeves.
