Samsung is leaning into its AI phone mantra by adding a third integrated assistant to its new Galaxy S26 lineup, with Perplexity joining Gemini and Bixby as part of its AI OS initiative — and it sounds like it won’t be the last such assistant to join Samsung’s AI roster.
Launching first on S26 phones in the US and South Korea, this alternative AI assistant can be activated by saying “Hey Plex,” or set as the default AI when you long press your S26’s wake button, and it can then perform many of the actions Gemini can currently help you with.
It can fetch information from connected apps like your calendar and gallery, with a level of access that’s reserved for integrated assistants — though it can also do more basic tasks, like search the web for answers to your queries.
This will give Perplexity a greater level of integration with your device compared with a smartphone app, though if you’d rather simply stick with Gemini you can do so — think of this as being similar to how you can choose which search engine you want to be the default on your phone.
With Samsung saying that eight in 10 users already juggle multiple AI assistants every day, it’s all about giving us the choice to use the tools we like best.
This then begs the question: which artificial assistant will be integrated next? As it’s not much of a choice if you only have two options (three counting Bixby).
Samsung was, as you might expect, cagey on this, but Kang did concede that “there’s possibility for another partner to join the ecosystem” at some point in the future — and I’d be surprised if Perplexity and Gemini stay as a double act for long.
As we talked about on our special Samsung Unpacked edition of the TechRadar Podcast there are so many interesting possibilities for on-device AI. Standard options like Claude or ChatGPT are certainly handy, especially for folks with a history with those services already that could help further the AI’s usefulness on their device, but imagine if something like a vibe coding-proficient assistant was given the reins over your smartphone and could help generate new apps to suit your needs on the fly.
This is just speculation for now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is something we’ll see in a few generations’ time, especially as on-device NPU capabilities improve.
Speaking of hardware capabilities, Samsung explained that its new AI features — including Perplexity — will be rolled out (or not as the case may be) on a case-by-case basis to older models.
So we may see Perplexity on Galaxy S25 smartphones, or the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, but Samsung hasn’t yet confirmed this, and perhaps this software upgrade is one you’ll ultimately need to upgrade for. Though Kand explained that Samsung wants AI features to reach as many people as possible — so it’ll be interesting to see what upcoming One UI updates bring.
Google still number one?
While clearly excited by the arrival of Perplexity, and the potential for further AI assistant on Samsung devices, Kang did affirm that “Our main partner is Google,” explaining that Gemini will get some new improvements (exact details were a little vague, though presumably this includes features like the improved Circle to Search) to make it the most capable phone assistant.
This somewhat flies in the face of Samsung’s user-choice comment, though it did make clear that it’s up to the AI providers to make the most of the device integration.
Given Google’s smartphone proficiency, its Android OS being the platform One UI is built on, and its own Pixel lineup offering insight to what users want most, it makes sense that for now its assistant remains in the top spot.
That said, as we’re seeing with AI in other areas, while Gemini may remain the best multipurpose helper, perhaps Samsung’s ecosystem will allow users to call on different tools for different tasks to get the best AI for each individual job rather than the one-size-fits-all model we currently put up with.
We’ll have to wait and see how its AI strategy develops, but I wouldn’t be surprised if other smartphone makers follow Samsung’s multi-model approach.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
