Samsung was widely rumored to launch an AI-powered version of Bixby alongside the Galaxy S25 earlier this year. But that never happened. Likewise, the company reportedly signed an agreement to invest in Perplexity and integrate its AI assistant into Galaxy devices. Again, this never happened, with Galaxy users only getting a year of Perplexity Pro for free. Now, it seems Samsung will launch a Perplexity-powered version of Bixby that will debut on the Galaxy S26 next year.
Leaker @chunvn8888 claims Samsung will integrate Perplexity into Bixby. The setup will reportedly work much like the ChatGPT and Siri pairing on the iPhone. Bixby will supposedly handle the basic tasks, while Perplexity will take over more complex, reasoning-heavy requests.
The leaker believes Samsung will unveil this Perplexity-powered Bixby version alongside the Galaxy S26 at its next Unpacked event.
Samsung already has a strong partnership with Google, heavily integrating Gemini into One UI. Over the last couple of years, flagship Galaxy devices have launched with many exclusive Gemini or Google-powered AI features.
Circle to Search debuted on the Galaxy S24 in 2024 before gradually expanding to other devices by the end of the year. Similarly, the Galaxy S25 launched with several new Gemini features.
Will Perplexity and Bixby integration make Google unhappy?
It’ll be interesting to see how Samsung’s move to integrate Perplexity into Bixby impacts its relationship with Google. The company already offers an AI-powered version of its voice assistant with superior natural language processing, but it’s limited to China.
This is not the first time we have heard about Samsung integrating Perplexity into its devices. Bloomberg reported in June that the two companies were discussing bringing Perplexity’s tech to Bixby.
Perplexity stands out for its search capabilities, and Bixby could leverage that to offer a better experience. But for everything else, Gemini — especially with the latest 3.0 model — does a far better job. Still, if for some reason, you prefer Perplexity to Gemini, Galaxy S26 will give you the choice to move to it.
The integration will also give Perplexity a major visibility boost, putting it into the spotlight with other big AI players.
