Samsung launches Bixby voice commands in America.

Samsung said in a statement that users could update the software on their phones from Wednesday yesterday to receive the "consumer version" of Bixby.

The updated version will have faster response times and more hands-free operations through voice commands, like "turn down the volume" when playing music or "read out the last messages" to listen to your texts.

The company has heavily promoted Bixby, insisting it is "fundamentally" different to rivals such as Siri, Amazon's (AMZN, Tech30) Alexa, Google (GOOG) Assistant and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30)'s Cortana.

Last year, Samsung acquired startup Viv Labs -- led by one of the creators of Siri -- in an effort to broaden its AI capabilities. The startup's own assistant, Viv, has the ability to handle more complex queries.

PICTURE CREDIT: samsung