Samsung recently announced two new smartwatches, the Gear Fit2 Pro and the Gear Sport at the just concluded IFA Berlin 2017. One feature that stood out was the waterproof property of both wearables, which means you can even take them for a deep in the ocean without any fears. Both devices also come with several features like GPS, fitness tracking, you can even download Spotify playlists to listen to music when away from your phone. The Gear Sport also comes with the function that allows users to stream workout videos to their Samsung TV and purchase items with Samsung Pay.
Despite the robust features available on the wearables, one feature that wasn’t included on the new smartwatches is the Samsung Bixby voice assistant. Curiously, the tech giant unveiled the Icon X 2018 wireless headphones packing Bixby functionality but that seems to be because they are paired to a Samsung phone. There’s no Bixby functionality on the earbuds themselves. Samsung had disclosed in March that Bixby would first be included in its smartphones and then will be gradually applied to all its appliances.
The plan to expand Bixby definitely is still on but when it would roll out to the wearables is still not known. Samsung’s Silviu Moraru, a senior manager of product planning and product marketing confirmed this to CNET on the sidelines of IFA, stating thus; “We’re expecting that the service will be across our portfolio of devices, but we have nothing to announce yet [for wearables].” This he attributed to the inability of the company to do all of it at the same time. For now, Moraru stated that the company is still investigating whether Bixby functionality can be added to the wearables later or if the smart assistant won’t show up until newer models are released.
Bixby was first introduced on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones but it wasn’t until several months later before it became functional. The service is now available in over 200 countries and have even found its way into the Galaxy Note 8 which was launched recently. Samsung just tackled the challenge which slowed down the roll out of Bixby on its phones so, we believe the company is right on schedule with its plans to expand Bixby. We expect the Bixby functionality to roll out on the wearables in the near future.
