Samsung’s One UI 8.5 is just around the corner, and it looks set to deliver a key upgrade to a forgotten feature.
The company’s Bixby digital assistant, which launched on the Galaxy S8 series back in 2017, is rumoured to become a much bigger part of the upcoming Galaxy S26 series.
As SamMobile reports, the new-look Bixby will supposedly integrate two AI assistants: US giant Perplexity, and DeepSeek, the Chinese rival which took the world by storm in early 2025.
Combined, they’re expected to deliver a major upgrade to the Bixby experience. Posts from a leaker on Reddit show it sourcing information from the web, generating audio and images, and offering the ability to upload photos, documents and screen shares.
There also appears to be a real-time ‘Bixby Live’ mode that imitates Gemini Live, while ‘Circle to Ask’ seems a blatant copy of Circle to Search.
To say Bixby was in need of an upgrade would be an understatement. It’s become something of a laughing stock in recent years, with most Samsung Galaxy phone owners typically only using it for routines and commands related to device settings.
Following its launch, Bixby quickly fell behind key rivals in the form of the Google Assistant and Alexa. In the AI era, that gap has grown to a chasm, with Gemini, ChatGPT and others taking things to the next level.
So, it should probably come as no surprise that Samsung has chosen to partner with Perplexity, one of the major providers. By combining it with DeepSeek, the new-look Bixby has the potential to deliver credible results where some AI assistants struggle.
Samsung launched the One UI 8.5 beta in December, but has yet to confirm when a final version will be available. However, SamMobile and several other sites report that it’s expected to debut on the Galaxy S26 series, which is rumoured to launch on 25 February.
