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(Update: "Bixby Vision") The Samsung Galaxy S8 will reportedly use its camera for visual searches

A new report claims the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 will be able to perform visual searches and recognize text in combination with its Bixby AI client.
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January 23, 2017

Update, January 23: A trademark application uncovered by GalaxyClub (via SamMobile) could hold a clue to the name of the rumored visual search feature we talked about in the original post below. Specifically, Samsung trademarked the term “Bixby Vision.” Even if the trademark ends up referring to something else, it further confirms that “Bixby” will be a big part of Samsung’s devices moving forward.

Original post, January 19: The flood of rumors surrounding the unannounced Samsung Galaxy S8 continue to hit the internet with no signs of slowing down. The latest such unconfirmed report claims Samsung’s next flagship handset will be able to perform visual searches and offer text recognition using its camera.

Samsung Galaxy S8 vs LG G6 comparison
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The story comes from Sam Mobile, citing unnamed sources. It claims that the camera app on the Galaxy S8 will include its own Bixby button, something we heard a while back. In case you missed the previous rumors, Bixby is the rumored digital assistant that Samsung is developing and is supposed to make its debut on the new Galaxy flagship.

The story claims that if a person takes a photo of something with the Galaxy S8, Bixby will be able to analyze the image and determine what that object might be. Bixby is also reported to have the ability to search the internet for more examples of the identified object.

The report also says the camera app, combined with Bixby, will use optical character recognition to identify any text that might be in an image. There’s no word yet if this feature will be able to translate text in an image from one language to another, but we sure hope it can.

The story does point out that Samsung could decide to remove these features from the Galaxy S8 before it launches, so take this latest report with the appropriate amount of skepticism. The new phone is rumored to make its first appearance sometime later this spring, possibly in April.