Rumor: Samsung Is Reviving Bixby With Perplexity-Powered AI

Samsung could be resurrecting its ill-fated voice assistant, Bixby, with the help of AI-powered search engine Perplexity.

According to a new leak, the revived Bixby would operate similarly to its earlier incarnation, before Samsung sidelined the assistant in favour of Google Gemini in 2025. Basic tasks would still be handled by Bixby itself, while more complex queries would be passed to Perplexity. These could include hardware troubleshooting, web searches, and deeper research tasks.

Based on the leak, shared by Galaxy Techie, Perplexity would be able to deliver responses in a variety of formats, including Interview, Storyteller, and Tour Guide modes. This would reportedly include a live voice chat feature, allowing users to converse with the chatbot in real time, similar to Google’s Gemini Live.

While Perplexity appears set to be Samsung’s partner in Western markets, the company will reportedly use DeepSeek’s large language model in China.

Bixby served as Samsung’s default voice assistant for eight years after launching on the Galaxy S8. Despite offering functionality broadly comparable to Google Assistant and Siri, it struggled with more complex tasks. Samsung also frustrated users by continuing to include a dedicated Bixby button on its high-end smartphones, with no option to remap it in settings.

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