According to ExtremeTech, a leak from the One UI 8.5 beta shows Samsung is testing a new Bixby version 4.0.50.4 that sends complex user questions to Perplexity AI’s reasoning engine. This integration, similar to Apple’s approach with ChatGPT for Apple Intelligence, provides detailed, research-backed answers instead of basic web results. In a leaked example, asking Bixby about the weather generated a forecast with practical advice like whether to carry an umbrella, displayed in a new card-style interface. This directly addresses Bixby’s historical struggle with conversational context compared to modern AI assistants. The move is part of Samsung’s effort to make Bixby a competitor to Google Gemini and follows earlier talks this year about making Perplexity the default assistant on future devices, reducing reliance on Google.
Bixby’s New Muscle
Here’s the thing: Bixby has been the strong, silent type for years. It’s great at turning down your smart lights or opening an app. But ask it something that requires a shred of reasoning or synthesis? Forget it. That’s where this Perplexity hookup changes the game. Basically, when your query is too complex for the old Bixby brain, it now gets punted over to Perplexity’s engine. Perplexity does the heavy lifting—crawling the web, summarizing, reasoning—and shoots back a polished answer that Bixby presents. It’s a clever way to graft a state-of-the-art research and language model onto an assistant that was built for a different era. The new card-based UI in One UI 8.5 is just the packaging for this new, more powerful core.
The Google Gambit
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Samsung has been leaning hard on Google’s Gemini for its headline AI features lately. So why bring in Perplexity? Two words: leverage and diversification. Relying on a single AI partner, especially one that’s also a direct competitor in the mobile OS and hardware space, is risky. By testing Perplexity in Bixby, Samsung is building a contingency plan. It sends a message. It’s a classic “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” tech strategy. If negotiations with Google get tough, or if Gemini integration isn’t yielding the exclusive features Samsung wants, they’ve got another horse in the race. This isn’t just about making Bixby smarter; it’s about corporate power dynamics in the AI era.
The Road Ahead
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is a beta test. The real question is how seamless the final product will feel. Will users notice a handoff between “dumb” Bixby and “smart” Perplexity-mode? Will it be fast enough? And what about the business model? Perplexity has its own subscription service for advanced features. Does this mean a future, truly capable Bixby might be locked behind a paywall? Samsung’s playing a long game here, with the Galaxy S26 series expected in early 2026 as a potential launch vehicle. They’re trying to avoid being another Siri—a legacy assistant that feels increasingly outdated. This partnership could be the shot in the arm Bixby desperately needs. Or it could just be a stopgap on the way to something else entirely. Only time, and the beta feedback, will tell.
