While some people swear by voice-controlled digital assistants and love using things like Amazon Alexa, in my experience, they are a cool concept on paper but one that hasn’t found its way into my daily life. Well, almost.
I admit I barely use voice assistants, Bixby or otherwise. But even so, one scenario has often reminded me why I should appreciate having Bixby within reach on my Galaxy devices.
The virtual assistant that turns off your TV at night
Picture this. It’s late, and you’re already in bed watching one of your favorite shows on your Samsung smart TV. You start dozing off. You’re ready to fall asleep, but the light from the TV keeps you awake, and you want to turn it off.
You extend your arm for your TV remote but realize you forgot it on the TV stand or wherever. The remote is not within reach. What do you do?
You could get out of bed and find the remote. Or you can stay in bed, reach for your Galaxy phone on your nightstand, and use the SmartThings TV remote to turn off the TV. Either option would probably disturb your sweet descent into the dream world.
Thankfully, I found a better way. Whenever I find myself in this situation, I press and hold the power button on my Galaxy phone to summon Bixby and tell the assistant to turn off my TV. I will have to unlock my phone first before using this feature, but it’s still preferable to the alternatives.
Even better, I used to do this with my Galaxy Watch 5 when I wore it at night (and I might start doing it again once I replace it with a new one). I didn’t even have to open my eyes. I just long-pressed the home key on my Galaxy Watch to summon Bixby and issue the voice command to turn the TV off. Job done.
While forgetting your TV remote and falling asleep with the TV on isn’t something we do every day, it probably happens to all of us, maybe more often than we might realize. As niche as this use case for Bixby might be, it doesn’t change the fact that I found the digital voice assistant very useful in these situations.
I always wondered, why summon the weather forecast with your voice when you have all the weather information you need on your home screen Weather widget? It doesn’t make much sense to me. However, I get why you’d want to whisper to your Galaxy phone or smartwatch that you want the TV off so you can fall asleep.
It might sound unusual, and you probably didn’t expect this, but it is the one use case I found very useful for Bixby Voice. Try it out if you ever find yourself in that situation. Just remember you have to have your SmartThings platform and Bixby set up on your devices first.
