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Samsung is reportedly under renewed pressure to ditch Bixby

Bixby is Samsung's AI assistant. (Source: Samsung)
Bixby is Samsung's AI assistant. (Source: Samsung)
Samsung is one of a minority of Android OEMs that bake its own in-house personal assistant into its mobile UI. However, some parties might prefer it did otherwise, not the least of which is Google. That company is reportedly offering the Korean giant a better deal to discontinue Bixby.

Bixby has become an inexorable part of Samsung's software ecosystem. The AI assistant often has dedicated buttons or gestures on the OEM's Android phones, as the company's own in-house app-market, the Galaxy Store, often has shortcuts within their UIs.

However, the same phones also typically come with Google's Assistant, as well as its Play Store (which may be required to get at common apps in any case). Therefore, one set of these or another could be characterized as redundant; some users may go so far as to consider the situation a source of bloatware.

In addition, Google might prefer that the company only provides its solutions. To this end, it has reportedly tried to offer Samsung good deals on the ad revenue derived from the Play Store and Assistant as permanent fixtures in the Android OS.

According to a new report in Reuters, the latest iteration of this potential agreement contains terms that are "more lucrative" for Samsung than ever before. They are apparently due to be accepted or rejected by July 31, 2020.

Then again, the Korean company does derive 100% of the revenue from the presence of Bixby and the Galaxy Store, and may thus be less than inclined to agree to something that may mandate their discontinuation.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 07 > Samsung is reportedly under renewed pressure to ditch Bixby
Deirdre O'Donnell, 2020-07-29 (Update: 2020-07-29)