Bixby Vision’s ability to shop on Amazon is missing from the Galaxy S8 on Verizon

Samsung went all in with its virtual assistant called Bixby by adding a physical button to the left side of the handset that isn’t supposed to be remapped to do anything else. Unfortunately, though, at the time of the Galaxy S8’s launch, Bixby is not complete. Now, according to Cnet and other independent sources, it looks like Bixby is even less operational on those Galaxy S8 units from Verizon…

Right now, Bixby only does two things: offers informational cards very similar to what Google Now offers and something called Bixby Vision that can identify an object and search for it on the web. This web search allows users to either find similar looking items on Pinterest or shop for the item on Amazon. The latter of these two Bixby Vision features is currently not available on Verizon S8 handsets.

In a statement to The Verge, Verizon said that they are “working with Amazon to provide [the Bixby Vision shopping] experience, but in the meantime [users] can use the existing Amazon app on [their] Samsung Galaxy S8 for the same photo and shopping experience.”

Basically, Verizon does not believe the functionality is at the level that they would like and is currently working to get it there. This is unfortunate for those who purchased the Galaxy S8 or S8+ from Verizon because now only half of one of the two working features that Bixby is capable of doing actually works. Hopefully, Verizon adds this functionality back into the handsets on its network as soon as possible.