Samsung’s Bixby can now talk in Mandarin Chinese

One of the biggest features of Samsung’s latest flagship phones for 2017 was the inclusion of their Bixby voice assistant that sought to be a contender for other virtual assistants. It was important enough that it even had a dedicated button built into the side of the Galaxy S8, S8+ and the Note8 so you can summon it at will. While it was only previously able to take voice commands in English and Korean, it now has a new trick up its sleeve: Bixby can now interact in Mandarin Chinese.

This effectively means you have access to all of Bixby’s functionality in Mandarin Chinese via voice commands. This opens up a realm of possibilities, especially in controlling your Galaxy S8, S8+ or Note8. On top of being able to field the usual round of trivia, helping take note of reminders and helping to identify objects framed within the camera, Bixby has the notable ability to  fire up the camera with your voice alone. To wit, you’re able to say in Mandarin ““dă kāi xiàng jī (打开相机)” and Bixby will turn on the camera in a jiffy. Replies to instructions or requests will also be fielded by the phone in Mandarin Chinese as well.

Since Bixby is deeply integrated into the the Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note8, you’re also able to get it to do quite a few interesting tricks with your voice alone to manipulate device-specific hardware settings including in-phone screen navigation (scrolling up down, left and right), adjusting screen brightness and volume and quite a bit more besides.

Fortunately, Bixby isn’t just locked to one language by default from the start and, like many Malaysians, Bixby is, at least for versions of it running on Samsung phones in Malaysia, trilingual and you’re able to mix and match English and Mandarin Chinese instructions and requests at will; bonus points if you’re fluent in Korean.

The new Bixby update is free and is available on the Galaxy Note8, S8 and S8+ by the time you read this. While it should be pushed to you manually, you can also check on your own by going to Settings>System Updates>Download updates. If you haven’t gotten the latest version, your phone will download the update. No word on when it will trickle down to their other phones but we’ll keep you posted. For more details swing by www.samsung.com/my/apps/bixby/