Samsung Galaxy S8's AI digital assistant will be open to developers

Following an earlier story that revealed some of the features of the Samsung Galaxy S8, Reuters today reconfirms the fact that the smartphone will come with a brand new AI (artificial intelligence) digital assistant.

As previously assumed, the new AI digital assistant service will be based on Viv, an assistant that Samsung purchased last month (interestingly, the co-founders of Viv Labs were also the original creators of Apple's Siri).

According to Reuters, the S8's digital assistant will be open to developers, thus always being able to integrate new features and interact with third-party services. Talking about the upcoming digital assistant, a Samsung executive confirmed that "developers can attach and upload services to our agent." Reuters further notes that voice assistant services will be expanded to other Samsung devices, including wearables and home appliances.

Of course, Samsung already has an S Voice assistant for its smartphones, but this is not on par with Siri, Google Assistant, or Microsoft's Cortana. The new assistant - which might be oddly named Bixby - will hopefully be much more useful.

After the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco (the handset was recalled twice and ultimately discontinued because it packed unsafe batteries), Samsung certainly needs a new high-end phone that can lure customers all over the world. This year's Galaxy S7 was very well received, but it remains to be seen if the Galaxy S8 will have what it takes to... make Samsung great again.

Alongside a new digital assistant, the Galaxy S8 is expected to bring a "slick design" (possibly including thinner bezels), and enhanced cameras. The smartphone could be officially announced in February or March 2017, likely being released shortly after that.