Let's be honest. Bixby has been a running joke for years. Every time Samsung releases a new phone, there's that one person in the comments who says "but what about Bixby?" and everyone laughs. Not because it's a great joke, but because it's painfully true. Bixby has been bad for so long that being bad basically became its whole personality.
But then Samsung went and made an announcement on February 20, 2026 that actually stopped people mid-scroll. A completely rebuilt Bixby. Conversational. Smart. Actually useful. And the internet's response was basically split right down the middle. Half the people said "okay, I'm interested." The other half said "we've heard this before." 😂
So which side is right? Let's dig in.
First, Let's Talk About How Bad Bixby Actually Was
To understand why this announcement is a big deal, you have to remember just how rough Bixby's history has been. Samsung launched it back in 2017 with the Galaxy S8 and the pitch was basically "hey, we made our own Siri." Except it didn't really work like Siri. Or Google Assistant. Or anything people actually wanted to use.
It struggled with accents. It misunderstood basic commands. It couldn't handle follow-up questions. And the worst part? Samsung put a dedicated Bixby button on the side of their phones that you couldn't remap for the longest time. So you'd be reaching for the volume button, accidentally launch Bixby, and just sit there questioning your life choices.
People hated it so much that there were entire Reddit threads, YouTube videos, and third-party apps dedicated to disabling or remapping that button. That's not a small thing. When your users are going out of their way to get rid of your feature, something has gone seriously wrong.
Over the years Samsung kept promising improvements. Every new One UI update came with some version of "Bixby is better now." And sure, it got slightly less terrible each time. But slightly less terrible still isn't good. Google Assistant and later Google Gemini were right there on the same phone doing everything better. Nobody was choosing Bixby voluntarily.
So What Did Samsung Actually Announce?
On February 20, 2026, Samsung announced what they're calling a fully rebuilt Bixby. Not an update. Not a patch. A ground-up rebuild. And the features they're describing are genuinely different from what Bixby has been doing until now.
The biggest change is that Bixby now understands natural, conversational language. Not just commands. Actual sentences the way you'd talk to another person. So instead of having to say something robotic like "Bixby, set do not disturb from 10 PM to 7 AM on weekdays," you can just say "stop notifications from waking me up at night" and it figures out what you mean and does it.
Samsung showed off examples like telling Bixby "I don't want my screen timing out while I'm reading" and it going into settings and turning on the right toggle without you having to touch anything. That kind of deep system-level understanding is something the old Bixby simply could not do.
There's also live web search built right into Bixby now, powered by Perplexity AI in the background. You ask something, the answer comes up inside Bixby's interface. No browser opening. No switching apps. Just an answer. That's a significant quality of life upgrade for people who actually use a voice assistant regularly.
The Perplexity Partnership Is the Real Game Changer
Here's the part that actually makes this interesting. Samsung didn't just update Bixby in isolation. They built a whole multi-agent AI system around it where Bixby, Google Gemini, and Perplexity AI all work together under the Galaxy AI umbrella.
What that means in practice is that Bixby handles the device-level stuff, the settings, the toggles, the Samsung apps, the things it's always been designed to control. Perplexity handles real-time web searches and information lookups. Gemini handles the more complex creative and conversational tasks. And ideally you don't have to think about which one is doing what. You just ask and the system figures it out.
This is actually smart. Instead of trying to make Bixby compete directly with Gemini at everything and losing, Samsung is giving Bixby a specific lane. Device control and system-level tasks. That's where it has always had an advantage over Google Assistant anyway since it has deeper access to Samsung's own apps and settings. Leaning into that instead of trying to be everything makes a lot of sense.
Samsung isn't asking Bixby to beat Gemini anymore. They're asking it to do the one thing it was always better at — controlling your actual phone — and letting the other AI tools handle the rest.
The One UI 8.5 Beta Is Already Showing This Off
This isn't just a promise about the future either. The One UI 8.5 beta is already rolling out to Galaxy S25 users in the US, UK, Germany, India, Korea, and Poland right now. People are actually using it and the early feedback is genuinely more positive than anything Bixby has received in years.
Users in the beta are reporting that the conversational understanding is noticeably better. It handles multi-step requests more naturally. The Perplexity-powered search results show up quickly and cleanly inside the interface. And the system-level control feels more reliable than it used to.
That doesn't mean it's perfect. There are still reports of it misunderstanding certain requests and the Perplexity integration occasionally being slower than just opening a browser yourself. But the overall direction is clearly different from what Bixby has been doing for the last eight years.
Okay But Why Should We Believe Samsung This Time?
Fair question. Samsung has said "Bixby is better now" so many times that it's hard not to roll your eyes a little. So what's actually different this time?
A few things stand out. First, this isn't Samsung trying to build everything themselves anymore. Plugging in Perplexity AI, one of the most well-regarded AI search tools available right now, as the backbone for Bixby's search capabilities is a real change in approach. Samsung is admitting they can't do it all alone and partnering with people who are genuinely good at the parts they were weak on.
Second, the rebuild is happening at the architecture level, not just the surface level. Previous Bixby updates were mostly about improving the voice recognition or adding new commands. This one is about changing how Bixby understands intent, which is a much deeper problem to solve and a much more meaningful fix if they've actually done it.
Third, the timing matters. AI assistants are having a serious moment right now. Apple Intelligence is on iPhones. Gemini is deeply embedded in Android. Microsoft has Copilot everywhere. Samsung knows that if Bixby is still a joke in 2026, it becomes a real problem for the Galaxy brand. The pressure to get this right has never been higher.
Who Is This Actually For Though?
Here's the honest reality. If you're already deep in the Google ecosystem, using Gemini, Google Assistant, and all the Google apps, this probably doesn't change much for you. Gemini is still on your phone and still works great. The new Bixby isn't going to pull you away from that.
But if you're someone who uses Samsung's own apps heavily, Samsung Notes, Samsung Reminder, Samsung Calendar, the new Bixby is actually more useful for you than Gemini in those specific contexts. Bixby has deeper integration with Samsung's apps than Google ever will and that gap is now bigger because of the improvements.
And for people who have never really used any voice assistant because they all felt clunky and unreliable? This version of Bixby is probably the most approachable Samsung has ever made it. If the conversational understanding is as good as the demos suggest, the barrier to actually using it day to day drops significantly.
The Verdict: Cautiously Optimistic
Look, Bixby has burned us before. Multiple times. So walking in with full trust would be naive. But this does feel different from previous updates in a few important ways. The partnership with Perplexity is real. The One UI 8.5 beta is out and people can actually try it. And Samsung's approach of giving Bixby a specific role rather than trying to make it win at everything is a more realistic strategy than what they've been attempting for years.
Is it going to dethrone Google Gemini or make people ditch ChatGPT? No. That's not the goal and it shouldn't be. But can it finally become a voice assistant that Samsung users actually want to use instead of actively avoiding? Based on what we're seeing so far, there's a real chance the answer is yes.
We'll know a lot more once the Galaxy S26 ships with the full stable One UI 8.5 and people have had a few weeks with it in the real world. Until then, cautiously optimistic is probably the right place to land. 👀
TL;DR (Summary)
Samsung announced a fully rebuilt Bixby on February 20, 2026 with real conversational understanding, deep system-level control, and live web search powered by Perplexity AI. It's part of a bigger Galaxy AI multi-agent system where Bixby, Gemini, and Perplexity each handle what they're best at. The One UI 8.5 beta is already out on Galaxy S25 devices and early feedback is more positive than anything Bixby has seen in years. Still too early to call it a full win, but this is the most promising Bixby has looked since launch.
Have you tried the One UI 8.5 beta yet? Has the new Bixby actually impressed you or are you still Team Gemini? Drop a comment and let us know. 👇
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