Samsung is giving its Bixby assistant another shot at relevance. The company has announced a beta rollout of a redesigned version of its voice assistant alongside One UI 8.5, positioning it as a more conversational “device agent” that can understand natural language and handle phone settings with less back-and-forth. In simple terms, Samsung wants Galaxy users to stop digging through menus.
As per Samsung, the goal of this upgraded Bixby assistant is to reduce friction in everyday tasks — whether that’s adjusting a setting you can’t find or quickly pulling up information without interrupting what you’re doing.
Bixby in One UI 8.5: What’s new
According to Samsung, the updated Bixby is built to understand what you mean — even if you don’t use the exact name of a setting. Instead of memorising how features are labelled inside the Settings app, users can describe what they want in plain language. Samsung gave an example to explain this further. The company said that if a user says something like “I don’t want the screen to time out while I’m still looking at it,” Bixby understands the request and immediately turns on the ‘Keep Screen on While Viewing’ setting. The press release added that this won’t require the user to navigate through settings or know the feature’s exact name.
That shift may sound subtle, but it addresses a long-standing frustration with voice assistants: they often require precise phrasing. Samsung says the new version is designed to interpret intent rather than keywords, and it can also check how the phone is currently configured before suggesting changes. So if your screen keeps waking up in your pocket, asking why it happens could lead Bixby to surface features such as accidental touch protection and let you toggle them on immediately.
Beyond device controls, Samsung is also expanding Bixby’s reach to the open web. The assistant can now fetch live information directly inside its own interface, instead of pushing users into a browser. Samsung said that if a user asks for family-friendly hotels with pools in Seoul, for example, the results appear within Bixby itself. The idea is to keep the interaction contained in one place rather than forcing users to jump between apps.
Revamped Bixby’s availability
The new Bixby is part of One UI 8.5 and is rolling out in beta in select markets, including India, Germany, South Korea, Poland, the UK and US. A wider expansion is expected later.
Samsung is also set to host its next Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on February 25, where it is likely to detail how AI features, including the revamped Bixby, fit into its broader Galaxy strategy.
For Galaxy users, the real test will be whether this version of Bixby feels less rigid and more genuinely helpful than before. If it works as promised, it could make everyday phone interactions a little less tedious — and a lot more natural.
