# Viv

Viv was an intelligent personal assistant developed by the creators of Siri, acquired by Samsung Electronics in 2016. It was designed to handle complex queries and support third-party plugins, but was eventually integrated into Bixby.

Viv was a discontinued intelligent personal assistant created by the developers of [Siri](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/siri). It was designed to handle complex, multi-step queries and to be an open platform that could accommodate external plug-ins written to work with the assistant. The software was developed by Viv Labs, Inc., formerly Six Five Labs, Inc., which was acquired by [Samsung Electronics](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/samsung-electronics) in October 2016.

## History

Viv debuted on May 9, 2016, at TechCrunch Disrupt New York. Compared to Siri, the software's platform was open and could accommodate external plug-ins written to work with the assistant. It could also handle more complex queries. The development team had been working on the software since 2012 and had raised over $22 million in funding by early 2015 and $30 million by early 2016.

On October 5, 2016, the software and its developer, Viv Labs, Inc. (formerly Six Five Labs, Inc.), was acquired by Samsung Electronics. The following month, it was revealed that a personal assistant software would be available on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. This, however, turned out to be Bixby, which was a relaunch of S Voice, rather than based on Viv. In October 2017, Samsung announced Viv Labs technology would be integrated into Bixby 2.0.

## Technology

Viv was built on a [neural-network](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network) and [machine-learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning) foundation, allowing it to learn from user interactions and improve over time. Its architecture was designed to be dynamically evolving, with a focus on third-party developers. The system included a natural language intent interpreter that could parse complex queries and plan actions accordingly. It also featured a prompting mechanism to ask users for additional input when needed, making it more interactive than earlier assistants.

## Patents

Several patents were filed by the Viv Labs team, including:

- Mark Gabel, Christopher Brigham, Adam Cheyer, Dag Kittlaus. "US 20140380263 A1: Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on third-party developers". Six Five Labs, Inc.
- Mark Gabel, Christopher Brigham, Adam Cheyer. "US 20140380268 A1: Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system planning". Six Five Labs, Inc.
- Mark Gabel, Christopher Brigham, Adam Cheyer. "US 20140380285 A1: Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on a natural language intent interpreter". Six Five Labs, Inc.
- Mark Gabel, Christopher Brigham, Adam Cheyer. "US 20140379615 A1: Dynamically evolving cognitive architecture system based on prompting for additional user input". Six Five Labs, Inc.

These patents reflected the company's focus on creating a flexible, developer-friendly assistant that could handle complex tasks.

## Legacy

Although Viv itself was discontinued, its technology influenced the development of Bixby, Samsung's virtual assistant. The integration of Viv Labs technology into Bixby 2.0 in 2017 marked a shift toward more open and capable assistants. Viv's approach to third-party plugins and complex query handling also contributed to broader trends in [artificial-intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) assistants, including the rise of [large-language-model](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model)-based systems.

## See Also

- Amazon Alexa
- Bixby (virtual assistant)
- Cortana (software)
- Google Assistant
- Mycroft
- [Siri](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/siri)
- Clova (virtual assistant)

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/viv
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-07T02:35:45.087439+00:00