[Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Questions & Answers] BeckPC:
Does anyone HATE Bixby as much as I do ? I really wish someone from Samsung would read this. I hate it when Microsoft uses the public to beta test software, but Samsung has gone WAY TOO FAR! If the software is not ready, don't implement it yet!

I've been a Note user since my Note 2. I've ALWAYS relied on S-Voice to do two major things for me. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but it's been very helpful for me. One is creating an appointment while I'm driving. The other is calling customers while I'm driving. I assume you see the 'driving' portion of my need. I need and want it to work TOTALLY HANDS FREE! I use a Motorola bluetooth on my ear during my waking hours. I use it to call Bixby. I WILL NEVER hold that stupid button to talk to my phone. Very stupid idea Samsung! I will never have Samsung, Google, Amazon, or anyone else listen to me talking (or singing horribly) all of the time waiting for that magic phrase. Never happening! Sorry. my wife listens too closely as it is. I don't need the cloud to listen to me too! I ***** and gripe a lot!

On my old Note 4, and through the different versions of S-Voice (none of them publicly released for that device ... only installed via ROOT), there have been problems, but its worked almost 95% of the time. Now that I paid $1000 for the new flagship phone, I'm finding myself unable to do the same things I've been doing on my Note 2, Note 3, and Note 4 devices for the past five plus years. Since obviously I've had it more than 14 days, I can't return it.

Bixby DOES NOT work handsfree. Neither does Google Assistant either. But S-Voice actually did! Saying commands to Bixby like these produce very odd results. They worked perfectly with S-Voice.

"Create an appointment Joe Smith at 8am tomorrow morning" ... with Bixby, it will be named something like "APPOINTMENT JOE", but most likely it will be set to 8 o'clock TODAY and not TOMORROW! Sometimes it doesn't even pick up the time and it's set for 12 Noon! It also DOES NOT repeat your request, like S-Voice did. I have no idea while I'm driving if it got anything correct. So far, I've LOST a half dozen appointments because I don't know where, when, or even if they were saved. They disappeared after confirming for it to be saved. If it does get saved, it's almost always incorrect and I have to manually edit it.

Now I've tried the way they recommend making an appointment, by saying to open calendar ... blah blah ... but that doesn't work either. It stops to ask "what would you like to name this event?" ... well, you reply and it stops. So much for handsfree. I have to reach for my phone to complete creating an event, something so basic is beyond Samsung's Bixby.

This one really gets me riled up! When I say "Call Teresa Adams", sometimes it will pick up the contact correctly, but a majority of the time it won't. It thinks I said "Theresa" instead of "Teresa". The same thing happens with a lot of other names, like "Bird" instead of "Byrd", "Smith" instead of "Smyth". Or "Jon" instead of "John". It cannot find the contact to call ... meaning it's not longer handsfree. I have to pick up my phone to make a phone call while driving. In some states, it's illegal to even HOLD your phone while driving! These are only a few of the issues I've seen with Bixby. But the inconsistency of pulling names from your contacts is HIGHLY FRUSTRATING!

Another one that burns me up ... this happens for totally unknown reasons. I'll ask Bixby to do something, and the reply I get is just totally off the wall. It will come up and tell me I have to install UBER to do that. WHAT THE HELL? I don't need UBER for ANYTHING!

I had to rename my wife's contact. I guess have too many names with 'Teresa' along with a last name, It NEVER called the right one. It would find five other names (and not all were Theresa or Teresa). So I've rename her contact to 'THE WIFE', and yet ... a few weeks ago, I asked Bixby to call 'THE WIFE' and it dialed my neighbor 'Peewee' instead. He got a great chuckle out of the fact that my Note 8 thinks he's my wife. I find it disturbing it can't even do the VERY BASICS. If Bixby was my true personal assistant on the job. they would be fired instantly and shown the door.

What have I done to remedy this issue for myself? You're not going to believe it, but I still carry my Note 4 (with Verizon service) and use it to do the stuff my new and expensive Note 8 cannot handle. I use my Note 8 as my business phone, but Bixby is useless for me. I don't want my so called assistant to pull up photos I took last week based upon some request. That stuff I should do with it in my hands.

NOTE TO DEVELOPERS OF ALL ASSISTANT APPS:

1. Must be able to function COMPLETELY HANDS FREE using bluetooth.

2. Must be able to respond with audible prompts and continue the process after an answer has been given.

3. Must verify and read back the information received correctly BEFORE saving the event (or calling the number selected)

4. Must be able to save a calendar appointment/event WITHOUT asking which app to use to save it. (this is a Google Assistant issue more than Bixby). As far as I can tell ... ALL CALENDAR APPS access the SAME CALENDARS! Duh! Why ask? Bixby wants to save to the Samsung calendar, but that can be changed and it will remember which calendar to save the requested event (and future requests). It should ask which calendar to save it to ONLY once, and use that as a default.

5. If you're going to release a REPLACEMENT software program, at least make sure it's CAPABLE of doing what the previous version could do first.

I've ranted long enough ... but haven't said all there is. I find it sad that I have to carry around my 4 year old device to do something so basic that my new expensive device cannot do without being coddled into doing my bidding. I refuse to switch to another device. If I wasn't locked in, I'd go back to using the Note 4 and never give Samsung my money again.

Whew ... I feel a little better, but I know I'm only blowing off steam. No one who reads this will be able to change anything. So I'm stuck carrying around two devices for now to do the basic stuff I've been doing for the past five years. Feels like we're moving backwards, doesn't it?