The smart assistants included in our phones can be much more helpful than just asking you questions or asking you to turn off the lights in the room (provided we have compatible bulbs). Assistants can even help us answer calls when we can’t answer them, as is the case with Bixby, the Samsung Galaxy virtual assistant.
Bixby can answer calls for us and transcribe them to show us on the screen what the person who called said. This can be very useful when we are busy or, better yet, for unwanted calls. If it’s a sales call we don’t want to attend, what better way to hire a virtual assistant?
Have Samsung’s virtual assistant answer calls for you
Although smartphones have spam detection systems, sales and other calls can sometimes bypass these filters. In this case, if you see a call from an unknown number and you do not want to answer it, you can leave the task to Bixby. Same if you’re in a situation where you simply can’t answer the phone.
Activating and configuring this function on Samsung Galaxy phones is very simple, you just need to have One UI version 5.1 or higher installed on our phone. If we have this requirement, we follow the following steps:
- Let’s move on to the application Phone on the mobile and press the three-dot button. Next we select the option Settings
- Then we access “text call” (this option is sometimes called “SMS Call with Bixby”)
- Finally we activate the SMS call function
Now we have already activated the possibility that Bixby receives calls for us, but we can also do this some important adjustments to configure this function.
- On the same screen you can click on “Voice” and choose if we want to use a female voice (Voice 1) or a male voice (Voice 2). We can also choose the speed at which Bixby speaks when receiving the call, or leave the settings at default.
- On the SMS call screen we can press “Quick responses” and add the custom responses we want Bixby to say, which we can choose during the call.
- Finally, if we wish, we can change the language.
How Bixby calls work is very simple: when you receive a call, a third button will appear on the screen next to the buttons to answer the call and to reject it. By pressing this button, SMS call, we will start the transcription using Bixby.
The caller will hear the voice we have chosen for the assistant, and we can select the messages that Bixby will say during the call, while we read the transcript on screen. It’s really useful, and it works pretty well, even if it’s not perfect, especially if the personalized messages you configure are too long or complex.
Cover photo | Alejandro Alcolea for Xataka
In Xataka Android | Squeeze your Samsung Galaxy’s battery with these hidden One UI 6 tweaks. Say goodbye to “hungry” apps.
In Xataka Android | How to personalize your Samsung Galaxy gestures as much as possible to be able to do (almost) everything
