Samsung Galaxy S8 release date, news, specs rumors: Samsung to introduce its first virtual assistant in upcoming S-series handset

Miguel Salonga Tuesday, November 08, 2016

New Samsung S7 (right) and S7 edge smartphones are displayed after their unveiling ceremony at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, last Feb. 21. | Reuters/Albert Gea

Samsung followers have something new to look forward to regarding the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 handset. According to the latest reports, Samsung will feature the next Galaxy S-series smartphone's own artificial intelligence (AI) virtual assistant.

According to Tech Radar, the Galaxy S8 will feature a virtual assistant similar to Siri of Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. It has been rumored that the South Korean tech giant has long planned to include a virtual assistant to their future smartphones, following Samsung's acquisition of Viv Labs Inc. last October. To note, Viv Labs is a company run by a co-creator of Apple's voice assistant, Siri. It is possible that this will give way to Samsung having their own popular virtual assistant for their Galaxy devices.

The scope of the work of Samsung's upcoming AI assistant is still unknown, although it is expected to work seamlessly with third-party applications. Reuters noted Samsung's Executive Vice President Rhee Injong saying that the developers "can attach and upload services to our agent."

"Even if Samsung doesn't do anything on its own, the more services that get attached the smarter this agent will get, learn more new services and provide them to end-users with ease," Rhee added.

According to News Everyday, the Samsung Galaxy S8 will include new handset features that the other leading devices in the market today have not yet presented. One of these new features is a special fingerprint scanning technology, giving the Galaxy S8 better security measures.

Another new thing in the next Galaxy S-series smartphone is the curved screen display. The previous Samsung smartphones have sported the usual flat screen panel, but the Galaxy S8 will be coming in bolder and slicker with an all-new curved screen. Still, the Samsung followers can expect some similarities between the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S8, given that the previous iteration already boasts a powerful design.