Samsung Galaxy S8 may have virtual assistants in male, female voices

Soon after reports surfaced of the next Samsung Galaxy S8 flagship phone having a personal assistant, rumours are now doing rounds that the device will have different names for male and female voice assistants.

The device is said to include "Bixby" as the female AI and "Kestra" as the male voice which can be easily accessible with a special button, US-based tech website Android Community reported on Tuesday.

Reportedly, a trademark protection has been filed to ensure that no one will be able to use "Bixby" and "Kestra".

The new Galaxy S line is expected to be introduced at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) next year.

So far, it has been learnt that the Galaxy S8 will have two variants -- Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus -- which will have dual camera system, iris scanner, 5.5-inch 4K display, 8GB RAM, 2K screen or two screen sizes and touch force technology.

Rumours about Samsung's own virtual assistant surfaced after the South Korean tech company acquired Viv -- a California-based startup in October.

According to Tech Crunch, Viv is an artificial intelligence (AI) and assistant system co-founded by Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham who created Siri, which was acquired by Apple in 2010.

The Galaxy Note 7 debacle where several complaints of battery explosion were reported worldwide, forced Samsung to recall 2.5 million devices and finally shut down its production.

Introduction of an AI assistant is seen as a move to recover from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco and to give a competition to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and newly launched Google Assistant.

--IANS

sku/na/vt