Samsung is making Bixby conversational and agentic in One UI 8.5

Samsung revealed and subsequently deleted a newsroom put up asserting a brand new Bixby expertise for One UI 8.5 final month powered, partially, by a Perplexity integration. The upgraded Bixby model was mentioned to incorporate higher pure language understanding and real-time entry to net info, however the put up’s stunning elimination solid doubt on when and if the options would launch. Now, Samsung is again with one other official announcement for the brand new Bixby expertise, confirming the launch is true across the nook.

The announcement follows the discharge of One UI 8.5 Beta 5 to testers at this time, with the one new characteristic listed being a “Bixby model replace.” Per the press launch, the brand new Bixby expertise will assist customers handle their machine settings and troubleshoot issues utilizing pure language and agentic instruments. Particularly, Samsung provides the instance of a person describing to Bixby how they need their machine to behave, and routinely making modifications on their behalf:

For instance, a person may say, “I don’t need the display to day trip whereas I’m nonetheless it.” Bixby understands the request and instantly activates the ‘Preserve Display screen on Whereas Viewing’ setting — with out requiring them to navigate via settings or know the characteristic’s precise title.

As telephone settings grow to be filled with options and toggles, the upgraded Bixby is meant to simplify issues by functioning as a tool handbook that you would be able to work together with.

Bixby’s pure language understanding and conversational expertise assist the upgraded voice assistant and chatbot make sense of your request, even for those who’re not describing issues completely.

The opposite good thing about the improved Bixby expertise is assist for real-time net information, which is able to assist reply questions a voice assistant’s typical data base or a big language mannequin’s context window in any other case couldn’t. These outcomes seem straight throughout the Bixby person interface and software program overlay, quite than direct customers to a separate app or browser.

Curiously, there’s no point out of Perplexity anyplace within the up to date Samsung newsroom put up launched at this time. The examples used on this launch are an identical to those within the beforehand deleted put up that credited Perplexity as powering sure Bixby options, like AI net integration. As such, it’s doable that Perplexity remains to be working behind the scenes as a part of the upgraded Bixby expertise.

One UI 8.5 is anticipated to launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy S26 on the Galaxy Unpacked occasion set for Wednesday, February 25 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Samsung says the brand new Bixby will probably be out there in choose markets, together with Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the UK, and the US. There are “plans for broader growth to comply with,” in line with the corporate. Samsung teased the bulletins as “marking a brand new part within the period of AI as intelligence turns into really private and adaptive.”

Are you excited for the brand new Bixby upgrades, or are you sticking with Gemini as your Android voice assistant? Tell us within the feedback under.