Samsung’s Bixby Marketplace to outdo Alexa and Siri

• Samsung launches Bixby Marketplace as their virtual assistant.
• It operates on “Capsules” (voice apps).
• Aimed at enhancing the user experience by promoting customizations.
• Launched officially in the U.S. and South Korea primarily.

Though, Samsung lagged behind in the race of creating virtual assistants, they have come to the finish line at last. After keeping people on their tiptoes, Samsung finally announced the launch of Bixby Marketplace. 

It is officially open in the U.S. and South Korea as of now. However, more information about launches in other countries and interesting updates will be given in fall at Samsung Developer Conference 2019, which will be held in San Jose, CA.

Coming back to Bixby Marketplace, it is a virtual assistant which enables the users to utilize their Galaxy phone by discovering shortcuts for the apps. Features of Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri are clubbed together in Bixby Marketplace, making it the best of all worlds. Not just this, but Samsung has also introduced an additional feature called “Bixby capsules”. 

As intriguing as it sounds, it literally is based on “sounds”. It is a voice recognition feature with which you can access third-party apps like Google, Spotify, etc and their certain functionalities, along with performing other activities by just giving commands. The word “Capsule” is apt in the context, as it signifies elements placed together in a shell for optimization of every element. Here, apps belonging to the same category are fit together for users’ flexible access.

These ‘Capsules’ offer quick results on voice commands. To put it eloquently, Capsules are arranged by categories namely – Business, Productivity, Games, Sports, Shopping and what not, to provide unhindered access. One can access Bixby Marketplace by pressing Bixby key. To approach a particular capsule, you can search it via its name or keyword. You will also be given  the option to save the capsule with a single tap on the screen.

Additionally, you can review and rate any capsule, to enable it to be successful and visible to other users on Bixby Marketplace. Bixby store will also feature curated staff picks to make the browsing experience of users more fluid and easy going.

The most attractive function that has been added to Bixby Marketplace is the flexible customizations. It is safe to say that Samsung had upped the game by introducing in-depth customizations in its assistant. Meaning, the user can customize settings for any Capsule. 

Say, any user has to order food online, they can set a certain food capsule as ‘Preferred’ for any particular request, and when the command for ordering food is given, Bixby will automatically open the preferred capsule, without you mentioning the name.

Bixby Marketplace has created new opportunities for developers as well. This is evident from the statement by Adam Cheyer, founder of Siri and Viv, “Premier developers will have key placement on the new Bixby Marketplace to maximize exposure and monetization”. 

All in all, Bixby Marketplace poses as good news for all. Though the latest features are highly commendable, nevertheless, people are excited to see what else Samsung has in store for further updates.