Google wants Samsung to use Google Assistant over Bixby
Bixby is Samsung’s answer to Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, and Cortana. Unfortunately, it still has yet to truly catch on unlike Google Assistant or Alexa (and to a certain extent Siri), but it seems that maybe Google could be giving Samsung a way to bow out of the digital assistant space gracefully.
According to multiple reports from Reuters and Bloomberg, it seems that Google and Samsung are in negotiations in which Google is apparently trying to convince Samsung to give Google’s own services more prominence on their phones. This means that in the future, Samsung devices could ditch Bixby in favor of Google Assistant, and also the Google Play Store could be more front and center instead of Samsung’s Galaxy Apps Store.
Reuters claims that to convince Samsung to fall in line, Google is apparently willing to offer more lucrative terms in both ad sharing and Play Store revenue than before. Whether or not Samsung takes Google up on their offer remains to be seen, but like we said, Samsung agreeing to Google’s terms would allow them to bow out gracefully rather than drop support and admit defeat.
This is actually not the first time that Google and Samsung have negotiated over Android. Several years ago, Samsung’s TouchWiz customization got so out of hand that Google had to reportedly step in to try and get them to tone things down.
Source: ArsTechnica