Samsung Galaxy S8 missing major Bixby feature at launch

There's some bad news for those who were waiting to experience Samsung's new voice functionality — the service will not be available when the Galaxy S8 launches on 21 April. Bixby is a major feature in the new Galaxy handsets that Samsung is betting on to gain consumer trust after the Note 7 debacle.

While key features of Bixby such as Vision, Home and Reminder will be available at the launch of the S8, its stand-out Voice function, which allows users to command the phone to perform tasks, will not be available until at least spring for consumers in the US and UK. Samsung plans to add more languages later.

A statement issued by Samsung to IBTimes UK read: "All Bixby functionality, bar the Voice Function, will be available to UK customers at launch. This includes Bixby Vision which allows users to identify objects the camera is pointing at, Bixby Reminder and Bixby Home. Bixby Voice will be available in US English later this spring, and will expand to more languages globally over time."

There is no clarity on the reason for the delayed launch and it is to be seen how consumers react to the lack of the feature.

The company had earlier said Bixby's function would integrate with Samsung's native apps such as camera, contacts, Gallery, Messages, settings and support more apps from Samsung as well as third-party apps in future.

Users can shop, search for images and get details about the places with Bixby's image recognition technology.

To wake up the voice assistant all you need to do is press and hold the dedicated hardware button on the side of the S8 and say Bixby. Alternatively, tapping on the Bixby home screen will also wake it up.