Andy Walker / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung’s new Bixby experience is made official for the second time, with the company confirming a One UI 8.5 launch.
- The upgraded Bixby virtual assistant supports better natural language understanding, agentic device management tools, and real-time web access.
- One UI 8.5 is expected to be announced alongside the Samsung Galaxy S26 series at an Unpacked event next week.
Samsung published and subsequently deleted a newsroom post announcing a new Bixby experience for One UI 8.5 last month powered, in part, by a Perplexity integration. The upgraded Bixby version was said to include better natural language understanding and real-time access to web information, but the post’s surprising removal cast doubt on when and if the features would release. Now, Samsung is back with another official announcement for the new Bixby experience, confirming the launch is right around the corner.
The announcement follows the release of One UI 8.5 Beta 5 to testers today, with the only new feature listed being a “Bixby version update.” Per the press release, the new Bixby experience will help users manage their device settings and troubleshoot problems using natural language and agentic tools. Specifically, Samsung gives the example of a user describing to Bixby how they want their device to behave, and automatically making changes on their behalf:
For example, a user could say, “I don’t want the screen to time out while I’m still looking at it.” Bixby understands the request and immediately turns on the ‘Keep Screen on While Viewing’ setting — without requiring them to navigate through settings or know the feature’s exact name.
As phone settings become packed with features and toggles, the upgraded Bixby is supposed to simplify things by functioning as a device manual that you can interact with.
Bixby’s natural language understanding and conversational skills help the upgraded voice assistant and chatbot make sense of your request, even if you’re not describing things perfectly.
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The other benefit of the enhanced Bixby experience is support for real-time web data, which will help answer questions a voice assistant’s typical knowledge base or a large language model’s context window otherwise could not. These results appear directly within the Bixby user interface and software overlay, rather than direct users to a separate app or browser.
Interestingly, there’s no mention of Perplexity anywhere in the updated Samsung newsroom post released today. The examples used in this release are identical to the ones in the previously deleted post that credited Perplexity as powering certain Bixby features, like AI web integration. As such, it’s possible that Perplexity is still working behind the scenes as part of the upgraded Bixby experience.
One UI 8.5 is expected to launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy S26 at the Galaxy Unpacked event set for Wednesday, February 25 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Samsung says the new Bixby will be available in select markets, including Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the UK, and the US. There are “plans for broader expansion to follow,” according to the company. Samsung teased the announcements as “marking a new phase in the era of AI as intelligence becomes truly personal and adaptive.”
Are you excited for the new Bixby upgrades, or are you sticking with Gemini as your Android voice assistant? Let us know in the comments below.
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