Calvin Enkidi / Android Authority
Samsung’s One UI is packed with features, which you may not even know exist. And if that wasn’t enough, every other update obviously brings with it quite a few new features and improvements. Case in point – Samsung recently rolled out the One UI 5.1 update along with the release of the Galaxy S23 series. While I tend to ignore minor release bumps when my smartphone hits, one feature buried deep in the changelog caught my attention: Bixby text call.
Going by the name, you might think the feature is an extension of Bixby in some way — maybe the AI assistant can now type your texts ChatGPT-style? Fortunately, however, Bixby text call has nothing to do with the voice assistant of the same name. Instead, it’s a brand new feature that mimics the call screening feature on Google’s Pixel smartphones. And the best part? It’s available on any Samsung phone running One UI 5.1 or higher, no matter where you live.
That’s right — Bixby text call can answer calls for you and transcribe the caller’s speech into a text chat-like interface. You can then choose to reply via text, answer the call, or hang up. But this is just a theory – does it work in the real world? We’ve been enabling the feature on our Galaxy S21 FE for the past month to find out.
Do you use call screening on your phone?
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Bixby Text Calling: Like Pixel Call Screening, but better…and worse
Calvin Enkidi / Android Authority
Once Bixby text call is enabled, you will see a new button on the incoming calls screen. If you click on it and answer the call, Bixby will take over. The idea is that you can know the caller’s intent before you give them your full attention. If the number is unknown, you probably want to know if the doctor’s office is calling or just a salesperson barking at the wrong tree.
However, I did not stop at unknown numbers. I decided to let Bixby answer all of my calls, even if it came at the expense of disgruntled friends and family.
so what happened? The good news is that Bixby text call does what it claims. When answering a call, it greets the caller and reads the following: “Hi. I’m using Bixby to speak for me. Please tell me why you’re calling, then Bixby will read my responses to you.” Anything the caller says, even while Bixby is introducing itself, is automatically transcribed and displayed on the phone. From here, you can click on some predefined responses or write your own.
Unlike screen calls on the Pixel, Bixby will read everything you type to callers.
However, it didn’t take long for me to notice that callers didn’t like talking to Bixby. While this may sound obvious given the voice assistant’s heritage, it’s actually not for the reasons you might think. Although Samsung offers five different voices to choose from, none sounded convincing or even friendly to my callers. Pixel call screening feels more natural because it uses Assistant and Google’s excellent text-to-speech engine.
Samsung’s initial greeting also includes a couple mentions of the word “Bixby,” which means very little to the average person. Who is Bixby and why do they call me? Unsurprisingly, I’ve noticed many first-time callers take a long pause to process what they’ve just heard. And a few of them hung up on me, too, before trying to connect again. But when they finally reply, Bixby transcribes English words fine in most cases.
My callers don’t understand who Bixby is and why they are calling.
Bixby also transmits everything I type into the bottom text field with its voice. This can be useful if you need to communicate something privately when other people are around. The only downside is the long pause where the caller has to wait for me to type my response. However, quick replies help weed out unscrupulous callers since you can simply pressure them with “Sorry, I’m busy right now.”
You may have noticed that I said Bixby works well “in most cases” earlier. That’s because Bixby text call is far from perfect, and most importantly, it doesn’t support any language other than English or Korean. If you live in a bilingual area, you’ll quickly find out that Bixby will do its best to type in unsupported languages…and fail miserably. I’ll leave the following screenshots from a non-English speaking conversation:
Is it Samsung’s fault that I used Bixby for non-English voice calls? No, the company makes this limitation crystal clear before enabling the feature. But it’s not like I know what language the caller is speaking before answering the call. The results are still entertaining, though.
Jokes aside – this limitation wouldn’t be so bad if I could review or listen to the recording and validate what the caller said. But unlike the Pixel’s call screening feature, Samsung phones don’t store an audio recording of the call — just a transcript of the text. So if you screen an important call in a language Bixby doesn’t understand, you’ll never know what caused the call.
You will need a Samsung phone running One UI 5.1 or higher. To enable Bixby text call, open the Phone app and go to Three point list > settings > Bixby text call And flip the switch to on.
Bixby text call is available worldwide, but currently it only versions English and Korean.
Bixby Text Call: Not perfect, but close
Calvin Enkidi / Android Authority
Language barrier aside, Bixby text call is a really useful feature when you suspect an unwanted call or can’t answer voice calls. In addition to screening calls, being able to type your responses is a huge step forward. You can actually have a conversation with the other person instead of just asking, “Is it urgent?” or “Who are you?” For context, Google Call Screening can only do the latter.
I know I criticized the feature a bit, but Bixby text call actually works quite well, especially if you only consider it for call screen purposes. From what I’ve noticed, marketers hang up pretty quickly when they hear an automated response vs. if I say the same thing in my own voice instead. But this does not mean that it should end there. Here are some improvements that I hope Samsung brings to this feature:
- custom greeting: Bixby’s current introduction takes a long time to read through and can be confusing if you don’t already know about the voice assistant. A personalized greeting would go a long way toward making the experience feel more personalized and personal. Samsung has a feature that uses AI to create an offline transcription of your voice, but it’s limited to Korean for now.
- Galaxy Watch integration: I often reject incoming calls from my wrist, especially when I’m around other people. If Samsung brings the Bixby text calling button to its Galaxy Watch line, I’ll have one more reason to use the feature — discreetly taking calls.
- Screen calls in the background: Manually checking a call from my wrist is cool, but you know what works best? Do this automatically, like Screen Calls on the latest Pixel phones. Samsung Dialer already accurately identifies spam calls in my area, so having it checked automatically would be a huge plus.
- Saved audio recordings: As I noted earlier, the lack of audio recordings really hurts the usefulness of the feature. Google didn’t include this call screening at launch either, so I can only hope Samsung adds it in the future. It would solve the problem of multilingualism as I could simply ignore Bixby’s gibberish.
Easy to get feature requests aside, credit where it’s due: Samsung lets you use Bixby text calling anywhere in the world. This is a perk you don’t get with Call Screening on the Pixel, simply because it’s not available in many regions. If you move or switch to a local SIM while traveling, the feature simply disappears. Samsung doesn’t have similar restrictions, though it only supports two languages at the moment.
Overall, Bixby text calls probably won’t convince you to buy a Samsung smartphone. However, it is definitely one of those rare Android features that you won’t find anywhere else (yes, except for the Pixel). Whether or not it’s perfect right now, I’d rather have some form of call screening than nothing at all.