‘There’s possibility for another partner to join the ecosystem’ — as Perplexity lands on Samsung Galaxy S26 phones a Samsung head is already teasing the next AI addition
The more the merrier
· TechRadarNews By Hamish Hector published 25 February 2026
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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.
Speaking at a roundtable event ahead of the S26 launch, Minseok Kang, head of Samsung’s Smartphone Product Planning Team, explained: “We want to give more possibilities to users to choose their preferred AI.”
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).
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