What you need to know
- A rumor claims to have discovered early « design illustrations » for a Ballie app from Samsung.
- The illustrations lay out Samsung’s supposed plans for an app, showing battery, location, status icons, as well as a « Streaming » button for the robot’s built-in camera.
- It’s unclear if this means that Samsung hasn’t completely abandoned Ballie, as the last report said the company « delayed » Ballie to figure out « its place in the home » and to likely handle that intense price point.
This certainly wasn’t on our bingo card. A leak has surfaced online, offering a glimpse of what could be Samsung’s companion app UI for its smart home assistant, Ballie.
Earlier today (July 30), SammyGuru posted a series of alleged « UI design sketches » for what would be Samsung Ballie’s companion app. The illustrations give us a good look at the app’s main screen. Taking up the center is Ballie’s circular frame with its battery percentage, location, and an « Error »/ »Ready » icon. There’s a chance this could be used in scenarios when the device gets stuck, since it rolls around. If everything’s all green, users can likely launch Ballie.
There is a hard-to-miss « Streaming » button. Earlier info about Ballie suggested it would feature a camera. There’s a chance this app could let users see what Ballie sees in real-time. « Home Monitoring » seems to be quite an important aspect of this app and of Ballie as a smart home assistant. According to the post, the « monitoring » aspect could involve a setup process in which Ballie maps out its routes, maps out your home for navigational purposes.
Taking another look at the initial icons: battery, location, Error/Ready icon, Home Monitoring might play more of a role than we think. This app could give users every ounce of information they need to view their home, understand where Ballie is, and handle any scenarios that might occur.
Oh, Ballie, Ballie
I never would’ve thought that Ballie would make a « return » via app design drawings. This isn’t even a real app (yet?). Ballie looked cool. By that, I mean it reminds me of sci-fi movies where there’s a robot that rolls around, quips, and beeps. I know that sounds like R2-D2. Maybe Samsung delaying it was the right call. You see that suspected price? A $2,000 price tag? I don’t think I know anyone who would splurge on something like that for a little yellow ball.
This is quite surprising. The last time we heard anything about Ballie was when a report suggested Samsung delayed it to « find its place in the home. » It gave the impression that Samsung was questioning the right place for Ballie within the home. The company reportedly expressed « caution » about the AI companion. Other concerns, such as a potential high price point and whether consumers would truly engage with Ballie or not, ranked high on its list of worries.
Speculation claimed Ballie could cost consumers ~$2,000, and with everything going on in the world, that might’ve been too steep a price. Samsung hadn’t officially said anything about Ballie. This report was in July, and nothing more has come of the little rolling robot. However, if we want to get real, Ballie was first introduced at CES 2020. Samsung was said to have a « human-centric vision » for robots, and Ballie was the start of it. The company said Ballie « understands you, supports you, and reacts to your needs. »
Its built-in camera would be its « eye » into your life, your home, and your needs. There was an announcement that saw Google and Samsung working together to bring Gemini into Ballie for enhanced AI support.
