Verizon Samsung Galaxy S8 Won’t Get The Full Bixby Experience

Leading up to the release of the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung announced that the handset will not be launching with Bixby Voice. While they did not dive into details, some reports suggested that the feature was not working as well as Samsung had hoped which is why they’ll be launching it at a later date instead.

Unfortunately for those who are buying their Galaxy S8 handsets through Verizon, you guys will actually end up with a slightly more crippled version of Bixby. Verizon has confirmed to CNET that one of Bixby’s features, shopping on Amazon via Bixby Vision, will not be available at launch. For those unfamiliar, one of Bixby Vision’s features includes the ability to recognize bar codes and products which you can then purchase on Amazon.

However it seems that Verizon has decided to turn off the feature. In a statement by a Verizon spokesperson, “Bixby Vision works on all versions of the Galaxy S8, but the Amazon shopping function isn’t operational yet. We are working with Amazon to provide that experience, but in the meantime you can use the existing Amazon app on your Samsung Galaxy S8 for the same photo and shopping experience.”

We’re honestly not sure what’s the hold up since it clearly does not appear to be a technical problem, but either way Verizon users will just have to wait for it. In the meantime we have also learnt that Bixby Voice could be arriving in the Spring.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: bixby, Galaxy S8, Samsung, Verizon