Virtual assistants are all the rage these days, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to make it through an entire day without uttering “Hey Siri,” “Ok Google,” or “Alexa…,” so it’s no surprise that Samsung has its own voice-controlled helper called Bixby on the way. Bixby has been leaked several times, including by Samsung itself, so we know it’s coming, but a new trademark filed by the company sounds an awful lot like a virtual assistant itself — or, at the very least, a feature that could be used in tandem with Bixby. It’s called “Hello.”
The trademark application, which Samsung filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, describes Samsung Hello thusly:
“Computer software, namely, software that enables users of computers and mobile devices to access, aggregate, organize and interact with content, information and images and topics of general interest to such users; Application software that provides personalized features and information based on user’s preferences in the fields of weather, music, entertainment, games, travel, science, health, contact, and social news; Computer software for scheduling and managing appointments, reminders, events and calendar entries on an electronic calendar; Computer software for organizing and accessing phone numbers, addresses, and other personal contact information; Application software that provides personalized features and information based on user’s preferences in the fields of weather, music, entertainment, games, travel, science, health, contact, and social news via voice command and voice recognition.”
Okay, so it’s a personal news and app aggregator that caters its content to the habits and preferences of the user, while using voice commands and voice recognition to produce information related to weather, social media, entertainment, games, and other stuff. It can look up calendar info and reminders, and schedule alerts. It also has access to your personal information like phone numbers and address lists.
It’s a bit hard to know what to make of this, since the description of Hello is pretty much exactly what most modern virtual assistants provide. It’s possible that Hello is Samsung’s official name for Bixby — Bixby was earlier reported to be the name for the male version of the assistant, with Kestra being the female counterpart — or that Hello is just a feature within Bixby’s larger umbrella. We’ll likely have to wait until Samsung is ready to officially unveil its next crop of Galaxy devices before we know for certain.
