Samsung adds Perplexity to Galaxy phones

A third assistant joins Galaxy AI

Samsung is bringing Perplexity into Galaxy AI on the upcoming Galaxy S26, letting users summon the conversational search engine simply by saying "hey, Plex."

That means alongside Bixby and Google's Gemini, Galaxy users will soon have a third built-in assistant on tap. This isn't just a surface-level app integration either. Perplexity will get deep hooks into native system tools, including Samsung Notes, Clock, Gallery, Reminder, Calendar, and select third-party apps.

Samsung is betting on what it calls a "multi-agent ecosystem." The idea is simple: people form preferences around different AI models, and different agents excel at different tasks. Rather than locking users into a single bot, Samsung wants to let them pick the right tool for the job. More details will likely drop at Samsung's Unpacked event on the 25th.

Why it matters

We think this is a pragmatic move by Samsung. Instead of trying to out-train frontier lab models on its own, Samsung is turning the Galaxy into an open agent hub. Letting a dedicated search and synthesis tool like Perplexity plug directly into local notes and calendar entries could deliver a genuinely capable productivity experience.

However, juggling three distinct assistants comes with serious friction. Users now face the cognitive overhead of remembering whether Bixby, Gemini, or Perplexity is best suited for whatever they need done. Granting deep operating-system access to an external AI agent will also inevitably put Samsung's privacy boundaries under the microscope.