Oppo launches own virtual assistant Breeno; plans to double the investment in research and development

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo recently announced own virtual assistant called Breeno. Oppo’s VP and president of the software engineering division Wu Hengang made the announcement at the recently-held Oppo’s developer conference in China. One thing is evident that Oppo has been following in the footsteps of major smartphone makers like Samsung in an effort to develop its own ecosystem in the form of Breeno.

Samsung's virtual assistant is called Bixby and the company has been trying to integrate it well within its own software. Similarly, Oppo may be planning to bolster its presence around its software ecosystem in the future. Oppo also hopes Breeno to become the universal ecological hub of all things.

Breeno is comprised of several modules to offer relevant information to users. Oppo explained its use case with an example: If a user is at an airport, Breeno will push a notification offering details related to the boarding gate. More detail can be retrieved if needed.

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Breeno’s integration within the ecosystem is mainly divided into three parts: hardware, services and interaction. As far as hardware integration is concerned, Breeno can support the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, in addition to cars, wearables, etc. As for services, it can work with recommendation-based information for consumers. It’s also said to work around with voice input, text, gesture, etc.

At the moment of writing this, more details are awaited with regards to Breeno’s availability outside of the Chinese market.

Apart from Breeno, Oppo also revealed its plan to double the investment in its research and development (R&D) efforts to focus more on 5G devices, up to $1.16 billion throughout the year 2019.