Samsung will unveil a revamped Bixby with One UI 8.5 and the Galaxy S26 later this week. It has already detailed some of its capabilities in an official announcement last week. But Bixby won’t be the only AI assistant on the upcoming Galaxy phones. Samsung has confirmed that it will expand the Galaxy AI to offer a multi-agent system, with deep Perplexity integration leading the charge.
Samsung has always offered Bixby alongside Google Assistant — and now Gemini — as virtual assistants on its phones. With One UI 8.5, the company will expand this lineup further by adding Perplexity to the mix as part of its multi-agent expansion.
Thanks to the deep Perplexity integration, Galaxy S26 users can trigger the assistant using the “Hey Plex” hotword. Or, they can press and hold the side button to trigger it. Perplexity will also work with most of Samsung’s system apps, such as Samsung Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder, Calendar, and even some third-party apps for “multi-step workflows.”
Galaxy phones already support the “Hey Google” and “Hi Bixby” wake words. With Perplexity joining the lineup, that number will rise to three. Samsung will presumably offer Galaxy S26 users a choice to pick their default assistant during the initial setup process.
Perplexity will also integrate directly into the new Bixby, allowing it to source and summarize information from across the web.
The deep Perplexity integration should expand to older Galaxy flagships as part of the stable One UI 8.5 update.
What happens to Samsung and Google’s partnership?
Samsung’s announcement emphasizes that it is opening Galaxy AI to support several integrated agents, giving users the flexibility to choose the one that best fits their needs. So, Perplexity might just be one of the many AI agents that will integrate deeply into your Galaxy phone.
Samsung has traditionally had a strong relationship with Google. As part of the last two Ultra launches, the two companies unveiled several new Gemini features, which were exclusively available on Samsung’s flagship phones for a few months.
With Samsung now opening Galaxy AI for multi-agent platforms, the big question is whether the Galaxy S26 Ultra will still debut with exclusive new Gemini features.