Galaxy S8 and S8+ owners in Samsung's home market are the first to get a fully baked Bixby experience.
Bixby, Samsung's new AI service on the , was missing its most important feature at launch. Bixby's voice commands — a central reason for the service having its own dedicated hardware button — wasn't operational out of the box. However from today, Korean Galaxy S8 owners can get acquainted with Samsung's AI-based trickery. reports that Samsung flipped the switch on Bixby voice at 1pm KST on Monday (11pm EST Sunday).
Finally, a reason to push the Bixby button.
Initially, Bixby's voice commands only work in a handful of Samsung's own apps — Gallery, Settings, Camera and Reminders. Expect more apps and services to be added in the coming months, as Bixby voice eventually hits more countries around the world. Next up is the U.S. later this spring, with other English-speaking locales likely to follow.
As for languages besides English and Korean, those territories may be in for a much longer wait. Samsung has said that it expects to roll out Bixby voice , by which time the launch should be near. Other European languages might expect a similar release timeframe.
With so few apps supported at launch, it's not like Galaxy S8 owners in other countries are missing out on much. As we've said before, Bixby is going to be a slow burn, and it'll take several months for the voice features to expand into new apps anyway.