Samsung has announced the Galaxy S8 and S8+, which also debuts the new smart AI service known as Bixby.

Bixby is Samsung's answer to Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa, looking to bridge devices and offer smart voice control for a wide range of functions, avoiding the need to dig into the settings.

Samsung says that devices are getting more complicated and that Bixby will help you get the most out of them, like letting you place quick calls, change the settings on your phone and a whole lot more, with a dedicated button on the side of the phones. 

Samsung also has ambitions to expand this service across all its devices: as long as it has an internet connection and a microphone, then it could potentially use the Bixby cloud service.

There's one slight problem, however. Bixby is launching with support for Korean and the US English so those in the UK and Europe will have to wait for local language support. Samsung is also being tight lipped about when it might be appearing elsewhere, but has assured us that it will happen.

For those who don't get the full Bixby service, you'll find that the Bixby button on the side of your Samsung Galaxy S8 instead accesses something called Bixby Home, a sort of Upday meets Google Now page, offering news nippets and information cards. 

Everyone, fortunately, gets Bixby Vision, however, which allows you to aim the camera at something and get more information about it.