The new AI? Bixby is sporting some cool new enhancements in Samsung’s One UI 8.5 Beta
What you need to know
- Samsung has announced that One UI 8.5 Beta 5 introduces several important improvements for Bixby.
- AI is now capable of “natural conversation” understanding from users to help with settings and more, while also adding real-time internet searches.
- One UI 8.5 Beta 5 is a small patch rolling out to US users, alongside other regions, as we get closer to Galaxy Unpacked next week.
If you’ve been involved in Samsung’s latest One UI 8.5 beta, you’ll notice a big addition: improved Bixby.
The company started rolling out One UI 8.5 Beta 5 to registered Galaxy S25 users yesterday (Feb 19), and now Samsung is sharing what you can expect from Bixby. Of course, Samsung has been down this “AI phone” road for a while now, and Bixby is slowly becoming an important part of that vision, according to Samsung’s MX business COO, Won-Joon Choi.
They say, to support this future, they “redesigned Bixby to enable more natural interaction and intuitive device control, reducing friction in everyday tasks.”
There are two bright spots in this Bixby beta, starting with “intuitive” device control through natural conversation. If Samsung uses “natural” chat, it means users don’t need to know the ins and outs of their device, or their settings, to get help. If the user can define what they need help with, Bixby should be able to handle the rest. Samsung adds, “Bixby understands the purpose and takes the right action, reducing the time and effort required…”
In addition, Bixby is reportedly able to understand your current settings and provide effective solutions, rather than “normal” chatter. Another big feature that Samsung highlighted was Bixby’s real-time web search. Users looking for hotels, restaurants, and more can ask Bixby, and the post says it will use “live and up-to-date information.”
Bixby is trying something new
This improved Bixby is available in the One UI 8.5 Beta 5 update for users in Germany, India, Korea, Poland, the UK, and the US Samsung adds that it is preparing for a “wider” expansion, but no details have been provided yet.
The latest beta began rolling out yesterday, as reports came in about its overseas release before hitting the US Although the patch was light, only 548MB, the main highlight of its changelog mentioned “Bixby version used.” Samsung has now come forward to explain exactly what that entails. Additionally, Samsung accidentally revealed its Bixby development in January, showcasing its Perplexity-powered internet search and chat capabilities.
Galaxy Unpacked will take place on February 25, 2026 at 1 pm ET/10 am PT in San Francisco, California.
Android Central Take
Bixby always feels like the one feature on a Galaxy device that I often overlook. Compared to Gemini, which Samsung includes in all its phones, Bixby is not portable in any aspect. By moving Samsung, it seems that it realizes that its assistant does not do as much as it could for users. Also, it seems that Samsung is looking at Perplexity to restore the Internet functionality of Bixby, not Gemini. We’ll probably see Bixby take a prominent place in its upcoming Galaxy devices, though the Gemini option will likely remain.
