Samsung won't launch its Bixby assistant for the Galaxy S8 this spring as promised

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samsung galaxy s8 bixby home

Antonio Villas-Boas/Business Insider

Bixby on the Galaxy S8.

Bixby, Samsung's new digital assistant for the Galaxy S8, won't launch this spring as the company originally promised.

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On Friday, the company announced that Galaxy S8 owners will be able to sign up for a "preview" of Bixby in "the near future," but didn't provide any details beyond that.

This amounts to an embarrassing blunder for Samsung.

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After touting Bixby as an innovative way to control your phone with your voice prior to the Galaxy S8's launch, the company was forced to reverse course and delay Bixby.

Even worse, the Galaxy S8 has a dedicated button that's supposed to launch Bixby. That button does pretty much nothing now.

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The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Samsung was having trouble getting Bixby to understand English.

Business Insider got an early demo of Bixby back in March, and it didn't work very well. The assistant struggled to beam video from a Galaxy S8 to a nearby smart TV and had difficulty understanding voice commands.

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