By Gregory Zuckerman
Publication Date: 2026-01-09 12:08:00
Behold, another means Samsung is reimagining its voice assistant: Bixby may get Perplexity AI’s help with tougher questions in One UI 8.5.
If true, that could turn Bixby from a utility to manage toggles and timers into a research-capable assistant that can cite sources and have richer conversations.
What the One UI 8.5 leak shows about Bixby and Perplexity
Screenshots shared by leaker @GalaxyTechie on X of what is said to be from an early One UI 8.5 build show Bixby sending tough questions to Perplexity’s engine and then surfacing structured, citation-based responses. The interface also points to a new Bixby Live view, suggesting real-time, back-and-forth chats rather than one-off commands.
SamMobile has corroborated the findings, pointing out that from its visual cues (a pop-up with a blue-purple glow) this is no different to what the top assistants do. It’s a great sign that Samsung is focusing on having interactive, contextual conversations with users over the old push command-and-control model.
Why Perplexity could change Bixby with sourced answers
Perplexity hangs its hat on retrieval-augmented answers: concise explanations included with citations so users can track down the answer. That method also gets at a common pain point of large language models — making confident yet unprovable claims — by attempting to ground the output in reference material. Academic groups such as Stanford’s CRFM have noted how retrieval can lower…
