Bea Beltran Tech 02.23.2023 02:Feb AM EST

Samsung’s Bixby Uses AI to Answer Calls Through Text Using Your Voice

Samsung is hopping on the artificial intelligence bandwagon by using AI for a new feature. It's now possible to record your voice for the AI used to answer your calls. After writing down your response through text, the AI will speak it out for you.

Voicemail-Like Feature

Although the idea of an AI conversing with the person on the other side of the call sounds great, it doesn't actually work that way. The feature is part of Samsung's Bixby Text and Call Service, wherein you will type a text to answer a call and the AI will read it out in your voice.

In a way, it's kind of like a voicemail. If you can't answer the call, someone else, or in this case the AI that Bixby uses, answers on your behalf. It's part of the company's One UI update that was announced last year, as mentioned by CNET.

The Bixby Custom Voice Creator can be used to record sentences which will be analyzed by the Bixby assistant. It will then create an AI-generated copy of your voice and tone, so when the AI reads out the text you wrote in response, it will sound like you.

At this point, it just sounds like an advanced answering machine but you'll get to create a different response for each call, and you get to do it with a replica of your own voice. The voice-replication tool is also limited as it is only available in Korean.

It's still in the early stages, so it's possible for Samsung to develop the feature more and expand to other languages. Although the AI sounding like you is not that useful in terms of function, answering using text-to-speech can help if the caller is too preoccupied to read a message.

The Bixby Text Call feature is able to send out an automated message to the caller when it's being answered by Bixby, but it is still unclear whether that will also be the case for calls answered with the custom voice creator.

Bixby's Enhanced Performance

This February, Samsung announced that Bixby has improved its performance and provides its users with greater options for control. For one, the text-to-speech form of responding to a call is now available in English, not to be confused with the availability of the custom voice creator.

The intelligent assistant is also now capable of adapting to the current situation, like what type of music will it play according to the exercise in Samsung Health. Users can also create a customized wake-up phrase for the Bixby wake word.

Bixby is now also able to the intentions of the user better for follow-up commands. It will do so by understanding the context, factoring in previous interactions, and associating the words used before to the current command.

Bixby can also function offline as Samsung expands its on-device AI support. Users can now run key commands like setting a timer, taking a screenshot, or turning on the flashlight. These updates can be accessed through the February OS update.