Samsung is making Bixby conversational and agentic in One UI 8.5

Samsung printed and subsequently deleted a newsroom put up saying a brand new Bixby expertise for One UI 8.5 final month powered, partially, by a Perplexity integration. The upgraded Bixby model was stated to incorporate higher pure language understanding and real-time entry to net info, however the put up’s shocking removing 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 correct across the nook.

The announcement follows the discharge of One UI 8.5 Beta 5 to testers immediately, 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 system settings and troubleshoot issues utilizing pure language and agentic instruments. Particularly, Samsung offers the instance of a person describing to Bixby how they need their system to behave, and routinely making modifications on their behalf:

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

As telephone settings develop into full of options and toggles, the upgraded Bixby is meant to simplify issues by functioning as a tool handbook that you could 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 can 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 instantly throughout the Bixby person interface and software program overlay, slightly than direct customers to a separate app or browser.

Curiously, there’s no point out of Perplexity wherever within the up to date Samsung newsroom put up launched immediately. The examples used on this launch are similar to those within the beforehand deleted put up that credited Perplexity as powering sure Bixby options, like AI net integration. As such, it’s attainable 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 at the Galaxy Unpacked occasion set for Wednesday, February 25 at 10am PT / 1pm ET. Samsung says the brand new Bixby will likely be out there in choose markets, together with Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the UK, and the US. There are “plans for broader enlargement to observe,” in response to the corporate. Samsung teased the bulletins as “marking a brand new section 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 beneath.