Samsung killing key Bixby Vision features as AR bet falls flat

Last updated: October 5th, 2020 at 11:03 UTC+01:00

After barely three years of service, Samsung is discontinuing a good chunk of Bixby Vision augmented reality features previously touted equally some of the app's main selling points. Co-ordinate to a find the company started pushing out to users tardily last calendar month, Places, Styling, Dwelling Decor, and Makeup are all on the chopping block and volition begin shutting down near the end of October. However, a smaller subset of users in select markets may still be able to access them for the foreseeable future.

That final part is probable related to the fact Samsung previously started monetizing Bixby Vision through these standalone functionalities, so it may yet have exposure-related or other targets to hitting as part of relevant obligations toward its partners. And, of course, its latest wave of Bixby AR apps indicates it nevertheless hasn't completely given upwards on its in-house calculator vision tool.

What is dead may never AI

Originally intended as a launch feature of the Galaxy S8 series, Bixby Vision was fashionably late to hit Samsung's get-go 2017 flagships. Its troubled evolution likewise continues to serve every bit a repeated reminder that Samsung's artificial intelligence game is nowhere near its hardware output quality, especially when compared to an AI-start giant like Google.

Speaking of which, this news emerged just as Samsung decided to shutter down the remnants of its Bixby dev outreach team. And both developments lend more acceptance to the possibility that Samsung embraces more meaningful Google Assistant integrations in the near futurity. In substitution for lots and lots of currency, naturally, which is what pretty much every version of this rumor has been maxim for a while now. Still, getting paid off to driblet Bixby – partially or entirely – may not be such a bad result for Samsung and is in line with the company'southward overall strategy shift that saw information technology outset weakening its focus on proprietary mobile apps from early 2020 onward.