Leaked screenshots and APK teardowns from hobbyists and developers have painted a surprisingly ambitious picture of Samsung’s plans for Bixby: not a tweak, but a structural reboot that leans on third‑party AI like Perplexity and borrows features straight out of Google’s playbook.
The short version
What’s surfaced so far is a set of One UI 8.5 artifacts — floating chat windows, conversation history, document and image upload, and a real‑time conversational mode called Bixby Live. Perplexity appears to handle the heavy lifting for web research and longform answers, while Samsung keeps Bixby’s original strength: deep device control.
What the leaks actually show
Screenshots shared by a developer (and circulated via several outlets) depict Bixby running in a pill‑shaped floating window over other apps, where you can continue conversations, like or dislike replies, copy text, and tap a Sources button that opens Perplexity references. When launched from the app drawer you’d get conversation history in a side menu — like having chat threads saved for later.
Bixby’s toolkit looks broad: device toggles (Bluetooth, Dark Mode, flashlight), uploading documents or multiple images to discuss with the assistant, and an AI podcast feature that converts a back‑and‑forth into an audio style dialogue. Several output “voices” or conversational modes are visible — General Agent, Interview, Listening Ear, Storyteller, Tour Guide and more — which lets the assistant tailor tone and format.
There’s also a Circle to Ask feature that mirrors Google’s Circle to Search: select part of the screen and feed it into the assistant. And Perplexity is not the only partner: the UI references integrations with The Weather Channel, HERE Maps, Skyscanner and Uber for consolidated answers or actions.
Hey Plex, wake up
APK teardowns add another spicy detail: Perplexity’s app appears to include hooks for a Samsung‑specific hotword service. Code strings and a WakeWordDetectionService suggest a possible “Hey Plex” invocation, with the usual caveat — voiceprint enrollment and microphone permissions would be required. If implemented, that would let the Perplexity backend (and by extension Bixby) be summoned hands‑free in a Gemini‑style fashion.
China’s Bixby versus global Bixby
Leaks indicate a Chinese build that’s more feature‑rich: it pairs Perplexity with a local search/AI engine called DeepSeek and exposes expanded generation tools (AI music, images, video, document mind maps) along with a larger set of task‑specific agents. That regional split isn’t surprising — local partners, content rules and different capabilities often produce divergent software on the same brand.
Bixby Live: a Gemini Live lookalike
Bixby Live is the clearest sign Samsung wants a dialogic assistant. The screenshots show live, streaming responses during active conversations, camera and screen sharing so the assistant can “see” what you see, and specialized camera modes like AI Solver (homework help), Translation (live language aid) and General. It’s very similar in concept to Google’s Gemini Live and points toward an era where assistants act like collaborative overlays rather than single‑shot search boxes. For context on how a rival is applying similar ideas in navigation and real‑time help, see how Google added a conversational copilot to maps in recent months (/news/google-maps-gemini-ai-copilot).
How Samsung is splitting labor between Bixby and Perplexity
From the leaks it seems Samsung treats Bixby like the local conductor: hardware control, app execution, and quick device tasks. When the question requires deeper web research, citations or generative reasoning, the query is handed off to Perplexity. That hybrid model lets Samsung avoid rebuilding a large language model in‑house while keeping the assistant tightly integrated with phone functions.
When (and if) you’ll see this
One UI 8.5 is expected to debut with the Galaxy S26 refresh, which makes the timing logical for a broader rollout. Leaks tie many changes to that launch window; if Samsung follows a conservative path it could limit some features to flagship hardware at first. If you’re curious about what Samsung’s next phones might bring alongside One UI 8.5, there’s early coverage of the S26 family that outlines expected changes (/news/galaxy-s26-preview).
Reasons to be excited — and cautious
This is one of the most visible attempts to modernize a long‑struggling assistant. The idea of keeping device control local while outsourcing reasoning to a specialist like Perplexity is pragmatic and could make Bixby useful again.
But there are open questions: these are leaks and APK hints — not final product docs. Privacy and security will matter a lot if wake words, voiceprints and screen/camera sharing become common. Voice enrollment, always‑on wake detection and third‑party integrations raise legitimate concerns about where audio and visual signals are processed and stored.
A new era for on‑device assistants?
Whether this version of Bixby reaches broad release, or remains an internal experiment, it’s clear Samsung is trying to rewrite its assistant’s story. The company appears to be chasing the same usability playbook as Google’s more advanced copilots — real‑time conversation, multimodal inputs and context preservation — but pairing it with Perplexity and, regionally, DeepSeek. If One UI 8.5 ships even a fraction of what’s visible in these leaks, Bixby will no longer be the afterthought it once was.
(As always with leaks: features shown in screenshots and code can change or disappear before public release.)