Bixby still exists, but Gemini is the default AI assistant on the Galaxy S25

 

There was a time when Samsung was so committed to pushing Bixby that it didn’t even allow users to choose Google Assistant as their default voice assistant. However, in recent years, the company seems to be gradually reducing Bixby’s presence on its devices.

The clearest evidence is that Gemini – Google’s AI assistant – has become the default on the Galaxy S25 series.

Gemini AI is the default voice assistant on the Galaxy S25

On the Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra, users can access Gemini by pressing and holding the power button, which was previously reserved for Bixby or the power menu. While Bixby still exists and has even been improved, Gemini is the main assistant, handling most voice tasks.

Notably, Samsung has integrated some of its native apps like Samsung Calendar, Samsung Notes, and Samsung Reminder with Gemini, providing a smarter syncing experience. Users can:

  • Search for information via Gemini and save it directly to Samsung Notes.
  • Add/delete alarms and timers in the default Clock app.
  • Create or delete reminders in Samsung Reminder with voice commands.

Bixby is still around, but not the main assistant

Although it is no longer the default assistant, Bixby is still pre-installed on the Galaxy S25 series. Users can manually open the app to perform certain tasks. When you first launch Bixby, it will explain that it can now remember previous conversations and understand the context.

For example, if you ask about tomorrow's schedule and then ask to add an event, Bixby will understand that you are talking about tomorrow and automatically add the event to that day's calendar.

The next-generation Bixby AI is not yet available globally

In China, Samsung has launched a new-generation version of Bixby with enhanced natural language processing capabilities thanks to large language models (LLM). This version can perform more complex tasks, but unfortunately, Samsung has not yet rolled it out globally.

Many people expected the new Bixby AI version to be released with One UI 7.0 and the Galaxy S25 series, but that did not happen.

Samsung claims that both Bixby and Gemini can work in parallel on the Galaxy S25, depending on the task. For example:

  • If you search for a restaurant, Gemini will be activated because it is a search task.
  • If you add an event to Samsung Calendar, Bixby will be used because it is a Samsung app.

However, in practice, Bixby can only be used by manually launching it from the app drawer or changing the power button settings to activate Bixby instead of Gemini.

This shows that Samsung has not completely given up on Bixby, but it is clearly placing more hope on Google's artificial intelligence in the Galaxy ecosystem.