Bixby voice preview launched, but only in USA for now

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 is a pretty great smartphone (review) for the most part, but it’s clear that the Bixby service is a half-baked clone of Google Now.

Still, Samsung has touted the service’s (unavailable) voice capabilities in the run-up to the Galaxy S8 launch, saying it’ll be better than many other voice assistants out there.

Now, the company has finally announced a preview for the voice functionality, allowing owners of their latest flagship to get a piece of the action.

“New voice features are coming to Bixby and we’re inviting you to get access first. Bixby is built into the Galaxy S8 and S8+, so you can send texts, change your settings or make a call by simply holding down the Bixby button and speaking,” the company explained on the sign-up page.

Samsung has launched a preview for its Bixby voice service, but it’s restricted for now

“Because Bixby learns and adapts to you, you can speak naturally knowing that Bixby will better understand nearly everything you say.”

Samsung also notes that Bixby only understands Korean and US English for now.

We tried logging in with and without a VPN, only receiving the below error message (I verified my account on the Galaxy S8 as well). Here’s hoping the service actually launches globally soon.