Galaxy S26 series is getting ‘Hey Plex’ and a major AI upgrade

Samsung just announced that it’s doubling down on agentic AI for the Galaxy S26 series with a new Perplexity integration. The company says Perplexity will be introduced as an additional AI agent on the upcoming flagship Galaxy phones, sitting alongside Samsung’s existing AI experiences, including the revamped Bixby.

The announcement marks a big shift in how Samsung sees Galaxy AI evolving. It’s no longer just a bundle of smart AI features, but something that can coordinate multiple AI agents depending on what you’re trying to do on your phone. The company cites recent insights showing that nearly eight in 10 users now rely on more than two different AI agents, choosing different tools depending on the task.

How will Perplexity work on the Galaxy S26 series?

We were first to report on “Hey Plex” voice commands coming to Samsung’s phones back in January. At the time, we found evidence in Perplexity’s app, including code that supports Samsung-specific hotword services. Now that Samsung has made the integration official, we know exactly how it’ll work.

Galaxy S26 users will be able to invoke Perplexity using a dedicated “Hey, Plex” wake phrase. It can also be launched by pressing and holding the phone’s side button.

As for functionality, Perplexity can be used inside core Samsung apps like Notes, Calendar, Gallery, Clock, Reminders, and select third-party apps to continue workflows without manually managing multiple apps.

This isn’t Perplexity as just another app or chatbot. Samsung is positioning it as a system-level AI agent that can understand context across the OS and help complete multi-step tasks in the background.

For Galaxy users, this could mean asking a question, pulling in relevant information, creating notes or reminders, and scheduling events, all with a single prompt without hopping between separate apps.

Samsung also recently rolled out the beta program for its latest version of Bixby, which is also being upgraded to operate as a conversational device agent.

However, rather than locking users into a single assistant or experience, Samsung says it’s building an open, multi-agent ecosystem where different AI services can coexist on the same device.

Crucially, Samsung emphasizes that Galaxy AI operates at the framework and OS level, not just inside individual apps.

“Hey, Plex” availability

For now, it looks like this Perplexity integration is only headed to the Galaxy S26 series. However, Samsung says more details about supported devices and experiences are coming soon, suggesting that older Samsung flagships and other devices may also support the feature.