After the hints spotted in the past weeks, Samsung announced a major step forward for its mobile ecosystem with the launch of the beta program for the new Bixby within the One UI 8.5.
This evolution marks Bixby’s definitive transition from a simple voice assistant to a true conversational device agent, designed to offer more intuitive control and drastically reduce the effort required to manage Galaxy device settings.
The main innovation introduced by the Korean tech giant concerns Bixby’s ability to understand users’ requests without them having to know technical terms or the exact names of system menus. Won-Joon Choi, Samsung’s Chief Operating Officer, stressed that this redesign aims to remove frictions in everyday activities, integrating artificial intelligence directly at the heart of the device usage experience.
In practical terms, if a user simply states that they don’t want the screen to turn off while they are looking at it, Bixby is now able to interpret the intent and automatically enable the screen-on function, without forcing the person to navigate manually through the settings.
Additionally, the assistant has become proactive in resolving doubts related to phone usage: when asked why the display remains active when the device is in a pocket, Bixby can suggest and instantly activate protection against accidental touches.
Beyond hardware control, the new Bixby enhances its capabilities thanks to a strategic partnership with Perplexity (it has finally been officially confirmed). This allows real-time web search integration directly into its own user interface, a feature that enables exploring complex topics—such as searching for specific hotels with kid-friendly pools—receiving up-to-date, live responses without being redirected to an external browser or a separate application.
This approach ensures a seamless user experience, allowing the user to stay focused on their primary task.
With One UI 8.5, Bixby is no longer limited to executing preset commands, but becomes a tool capable of analyzing the device state and suggesting targeted solutions. Regarding the beta program implementation, the new assistant will debut in one of the upcoming builds. Clearly the final version will be available in the stable build, coming with the debut of the Galaxy S26 lineup.
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