Back when Google Assistant was becoming popular, Samsung refused to let people activate it using a dedicated button or even to use it as the default voice assistant on its phones. It forced people to use Bixby. However, over the past few years, it seems to be reducing Bixby's prominence from its devices.
In fact, Gemini is now the default voice assistant on its latest high-end phones: Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Bixby might as well not be there
You can access Google's Gemini AI by simply long-pressing the side (power) button on the Galaxy S25 series. That action was earlier limited to Bixby or the Power Menu. While Bixby is still present, and it even seems to have been improved, Gemini still does most of the voice assistant duties.
Moreover, Samsung also created integration for some of its stock apps—Samsung Calendar, Samsung Notes, and Samsung Reminder—for Gemini.
For example, you can ask Gemini to find something or some place and add that information to Samsung Notes. You can add or remove an alarm or start or end a stopwatch or timer in the stock Clock app via Gemini. You can create or delete reminders in the Samsung Reminder app via Gemini voice commands.
Bixby has been upgraded
Bixby still comes pre-loaded on the Galaxy S25 series. You can manually launch the app and ask it to do certain things, and it will do those things. However, it no longer does voice assistant tasks by default.
When you launch Bixby for the first time on the Galaxy S25, it explains that it can now remember previous conversations and the context. So, when you say your next command, it can remember what you previously discussed and answer the question or do the task in that context.
For example, you can ask it about your schedule for the next day and then ask it to add another calendar event. It will remember that your previous conversation with it was about the next day. So, it will add the calendar entry for that day.
In China, Samsung introduced the newer generation Bixby, powered by large language models (LLMs), a few months ago. In addition to remembering context, it works with several apps and can do a lot more things. However, it doesn't seem to have added most of those features to Bixby in other countries.
It was expected that the same next-generation Bixby revealed by Samsung in China would be released in other countries with One UI 7.0 and with the Galaxy S25. However, that didn't happen.
Samsung mentioned to some publications that Bixby and Gemini are both used on the Galaxy S25 and that either will be activated, depending on the task. Here's what Samsung said to Android Authority:
Gemini and Bixby can both be activated depending on the use case / what is being asked. Gemini and / or Bixby is activated depending on what you ask your device to do. For example, if you’re looking for a restaurant – Gemini will be activated because it’s a search function, but if you ask to add something to your Samsung Calendar, Bixby will activate because it’s a Samsung app.
However, to us, it seems like you can only use Bixby by manually launching it from the app drawer or changing the default side button settings to Bixby.
Image Credits: Samsung