What you need to know
- Samsung is testing Perplexity-powered responses inside Bixby ahead of the Galaxy S26 launch, signaling a major AI upgrade.
- The integration lets Bixby handle basic tasks while Perplexity answers complex, web-backed questions with sources.
- Early signs of the feature have appeared in the One UI 8.5 beta, despite being planned for Galaxy S26.
Samsung appears to be laying the groundwork for a major Perplexity-powered Bixby upgrade ahead of Galaxy S26 series launch next year.
Samsung's Galaxy AI suite already offers some of the most capable AI features among all Android smartphones, but Bixby has consistently lagged behind competitors. At the moment, Samsung largely relies on Google Gemini for deeper and complex queries. The company's own Bixby assistant, on the other hand, are limited to basic tasks and commands.
For some time now, Samsung has been rumored to be working with Perplexity to give Bixby a much-needed AI upgrade. With this integration, Bixby would continue managing basic system actions like toggling settings or opening apps, while Perplexity would step in to answer more complex, web-backed queries complete with citations, similar to how Apple tapped OpenAI's ChatGPT to handle advanced requests in iOS 26.
Samsung looks to fix Bixby's biggest weakness
The feature was initially rumored to debut alongside the Galaxy S26 series, but signs of it have already appeared in the latest One UI 8.5 beta. A screenshot shared by the user @achultra on X (via SammyGuru) shows Bixby responses clearly powered by Perplexity.
We weren't able to get the feature working on our Galaxy S25 Ultra running the latest One UI 8.5 beta. However, the shared screenshot shows a complex query (involving a French-language question about weather) being answered by Bixby with Perplexity listed as the source.
Samsung already offers free Perplexity Pro access for Galaxy smartphone users and has been using Perplexity-powered answers on its smart TVs and other appliances. Still, this marks the first time we're seeing signs of that integration making its way to Samsung smartphones.
While the feature was originally expected to launch exclusively with the Galaxy S26 lineup, this early appearance gives us a clearer idea of how the integration will work. If rolled out widely, it could finally give Samsung users a strong alternative to Google Gemini, and we expect to see more developments around this in the coming days.
