- Samsung is reportedly close to finalizing a deal with Perplexity
- The deal could be announced this year and see Perplexity replace Gemini as the Galaxy S26’s default AI assistant
- What this would mean for Gemini on Samsung phones is unclear
Right now, Google Gemini is the standard AI assistant on Android phones, and Samsung in particular has heavily incorporated Gemini into its devices. But that partnership might not last much longer.
According to a paywalled report on Bloomberg (via Android Police), Samsung is close to finalizing a deal with Perplexity, which would see the latter’s AI assistant integrated into Samsung’s phones.
Reportedly, the deal could be announced later this year, but it sounds like Perplexity won’t appear on the best Samsung phones until early 2026, with Samsung apparently aiming to ship it as the default AI assistant on the Samsung Galaxy S26 series.
Deep integration
The deal would reportedly see Samsung pre-installing the Perplexity app on these phones, as well as integrating its features into Samsung Internet. Apparently, there are even discussions to incorporate Perplexity tech into Samsung’s Bixby assistant, though it sounds like there’s less certainty that it will end up being part of the deal.
Beyond that, Samsung and Perplexity have apparently discussed building AI-powered operating systems with AI agents “that can tap into functionality from Perplexity and a range of other AI assistants.” That does, however, sound further off if it happens at all.
What this deal would mean for Samsung’s partnership with Google is unclear. If Perplexity is shipped as the default option on the Samsung Galaxy S26 series – and presumably other Samsung phones too – then at a minimum, Gemini would be a bit sidelined.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the Gemini features we’ve seen on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series will be absent; you might instead have a choice of multiple AI services.
If Samsung really is set to announce this partnership this year, then we should have a clearer idea before too long.
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