Samsung Galaxy Home Mini 2 In Production: Report
In other words: production started. https://t.co/0MpGv7qez4
— Max Jambor (@MaxJmb) January 12, 2022
The long-rumored yet officially unmentioned Samsung Galaxy Home Mini 2 smart speaker is in production at the factory, according to frequently accurate Samsung leaker Max Jambor in the tweet above. Whether it will be sold globally or just in South Korea like Samsung’s earlier smart speakers isn’t clear, but the company’s recent moves suggest it has some bigger ambitions for the new device.
Galaxy Missing
Samsung first demoed the Galaxy Home smart speaker in August 2018, pitching it as able to compete with very high-end audio equipment, but it never actually put it out as a product. In 2020, the company did release the Galaxy Home Mini and even keeps it upgraded with features like new wake words, but the device is only sold in South Korea, and it’s unavailable elsewhere.
Samsung has since released devices like a smart monitor that works as a combination of smart TV, computer monitor, and smart display, and robots like Ballie and the Bespoke Jet Bot AI+ robot vacuum, but no actual smart speaker. Samsung debuted at CES in 2020. The new Smart Monitor, which comes in 27-inch and 32-inch variants, runs on Samsung Tizen and includes a remote control with voice control and access to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung Bixby voice assistants. Any information about the Galaxy Home Mini 2 may not be unveiled until the Galaxy S22 event on February 8.
Bixby Bubbles
One reason to think the new device will have a worldwide rollout is the moves Samsung is making regarding its Bixby voice assistant. The new Bixby Home Platform lets developers set up a language processing filter that enables the AI to consider the context of commands it is given with regards to connected smart devices. Samsung is staking an ambitious claim on smart home partner developers with the platform. The company augmented that move when it began integrating into SmartThings and Galaxy devices into the Matter open smart home application protocol shared by other major voice assistant developers. Plus, major upgrades to the Bixby like no longer requiring training to understand its wake word, give Bixby more of a reach and continue to blow up whispers that Samsung had planned to drop Bixby in favor of Google Assistant or merge it into Google’s system in some way.
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