Samsung’s new Bixby assistant finally found its voice in South Korea today, over a week after making its debut on the Galaxy S8. Unlike its rivals, Bixby has the ability to rap, and Samsung uses that to take a cheeky, secret stab at Siri.
Following its acquisition of Siri in 2010, Apple popularized virtual assistants with the iPhone 4s. But in recent years, competitors have found clever new ways to get ahead — like tighter integration with third-party devices and services. Bixby is the latest to step up to the plate.
It has some unique features of its own, like the ability to point it at objects in the real world, which it will then identify. It can also rap and beatbox, as demonstrated in the video below. All you have to do is say “please rap” or “please beatbox” in Korean (Bixby doesn’t have a voice in other markets yet).
Most of Bixby’s raps are shameless self-promotion, but they’re harmless. However, there’s one, pictured below, that takes a secret stab at Apple’s virtual assistant. The first letter of each line spells out the phrase, “I am better than Siri.”
Photo: Siranoasdf/Reddit
It’s kind of ironic that Samsung claims this now, since Bixby only offers voice support in its home market of South Korea; the rest of the world is still waiting for it to arrive. Most would consider Siri to be the better virtual assistant as things stand, then.
But Bixby is ambitious, and as things improve over time, it could well be better than Siri — and every other virtual assistant out there. We don’t yet know whether Bixby will be able to rap in English, though, so don’t start making plans for a duet just yet.
