Samsung Bixby Gets Smarter With Perplexity AI

Before the Galaxy S26 series launches next year, Samsung seems to be preparing for a significant Bixby overhaul powered by Perplexity. As it is revitalising its internal assistant by incorporating Perplexity AI into Bixby. Bixby is now capable of more than just simple system commands. It can now do real-time research and provide more intelligent, context-aware responses. This collaboration, which can be seen in the One UI 8.5 beta, intends to maintain platform control while bridging the intelligence gap with Google’s Gemini. With the release of the Galaxy S26 series, the complete experience should be accessible everywhere.

Among all Android smartphones, Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite already boasts some of the best AI capabilities, but Bixby has continuously trailed rivals. For more in-depth and complicated enquiries, Samsung currently mostly uses Google Gemini. On the other hand, the company’s own Bixby assistant is restricted to simple orders and tasks.

The speech assistant on Galaxy devices, Bixby, is likely well-known to many. For a while, it appeared as though Google’s Gemini would always be superior to Samsung’s in-house helper. Bixby felt like a supporting tool limited to basic system commands, while Gemini took centre stage on Galaxy devices. Recent events, however, indicate that the business may not yet be prepared to retire its helper. Instead, by incorporating Perplexity’s AI search engine, Samsung is significantly enhancing Bixby’s intelligence.

The Samsung and Perplexity AI collaboration is to bring Bixby back against Gemini. The first products to exhibit this collaboration were Samsung TVs. Bixby began utilising Perplexity to deal with challenging queries on these gadgets. Now, that same technology is subtly making its way into smartphones. Bixby’s data handling has changed, according to users testing the One UI 8.5 beta on Galaxy S25 devices. The assistant now provides more complex and situation-specific responses rather than straightforward ones.

For instance, the new Perplexity-powered Bixby does more than merely display the temperature when a user enquires about the weather. In order to provide useful guidance, such as recommending a jacket or an umbrella based on the likelihood of rain, it evaluates the prediction. This change transforms Bixby from a mere voice trigger into a more competent research assistant.

For the partnership’s strategy, Samsung may be able to close the “intelligence gap” between Bixby and more recent AI technologies by including Perplexity. Bixby can concentrate on what it does best in managing the phone’s internal settings and system-level features because Perplexity can perform complex reasoning and web-based research. In contrast, the challenging portions of the questions are handled by the external AI model. 

Additionally, this action increases Samsung’s autonomy. Having a separate high-level AI partner guarantees that Galaxy users aren’t totally reliant on a single ecosystem, even while the company retains a close partnership with Google. It’s how Samsung maintains the relevance of its internal assistant while delivering the “smarter” experience that contemporary smartphone customers demand.

This improved version of Bixby is now hidden in the One UI 8.5 beta, which is only available for the Galaxy S25 series. A contemporary card-style overlay that adheres to current design trends has also been added to the interface.

The entire rollout is anticipated to coincide with the early 2026 release of the Galaxy S26 series. These features will most likely be added to the S26 models initially. These software updates are typically sent to older flagship devices by Samsung shortly following the release of new hardware. This upgrade may finally persuade you to try Bixby if you’re still hesitant to do so.

Though there have been rumours for a while that Samsung is collaborating with Perplexity to provide Bixby with a much-needed AI update. Similar to how Apple used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to handle advanced enquiries in iOS 26, Perplexity would take over to respond to more complicated, web-backed queries replete with citations while Bixby would continue to handle simple system activities like changing settings or running apps.

The new One UI 8.5 beta already shows indications of the feature, which was first supposed to launch with the Galaxy S26 series. Bixby responses are obviously driven by perplexity, according to a screenshot posted on X by user @achultra (via SammyGuru).

On our Galaxy S25 Ultra running the most recent One UI 8.5 beta, we were unable to get the feature to function. However, the screenshot that was released depicts Bixby responding to a complicated question about the weather in French, with Perplexity identified as the source.

Samsung has been utilising Perplexity-powered solutions on its smart TVs and other appliances, and it already provides free access to Perplexity Pro for Galaxy smartphone customers. However, this is the first indication that Samsung smartphones may incorporate that feature.

This early appearance helps us understand how the integration would function, even though it was once anticipated that the capability would only be available with the Galaxy S26 range. It could finally provide Samsung users with a powerful substitute for Google Gemini if it is extensively implemented, and we anticipate further advancements in this area in the days to come.