- Samsung’s new Bixby experience is made official for the second time, with the company confirming a One UI 8.5 launch.
- The upgraded Bixby virtual assistant supports better natural language understanding, agentic device management tools, and real-time web access.
- One UI 8.5 is expected to be announced alongside the Samsung Galaxy S26 series at an Unpacked event next week.
Samsung published and subsequently deleted a newsroom post announcing a new Bixby experience for One UI 8.5 last month powered, in part, by a Perplexity integration. The upgraded Bixby version was said to include better natural language understanding and real-time access to web information, but the post’s surprising removal cast doubt on when and if the features would release. Now, Samsung is back with another official announcement for the new Bixby experience, confirming the launch is right around the corner.
The announcement follows the release of One UI 8.5 Beta 5 to testers today, with the only new feature listed being a “Bixby version update.” Per the press release, the new Bixby experience will help users manage their device settings and troubleshoot problems using natural language and agentic tools. Specifically, Samsung gives the example of a user describing to Bixby how they want their device to behave, and automatically making changes on their behalf: