GoKawiilAdamya Sharma / Android Authority
TL;DR Samsung has partnered with Perplexity to feature the AI as an assistant option on the Galaxy S26 series.
New owners have been confused by inconsistent Perplexity wake word support.
A now-deleted comment by Perplexity’s CEO suggested this may be tied to a shift to “Hey Perplexity.”
Update, March 17, 2026 (5:23 PM ET): It’s been a few days since we reached out to Samsung in regards to the confusing Perplexity wake word saga on the Galaxy S26, but we’ve finally received a response from the company with a statement. It doesn’t quite deliver the clarity we were hoping for, but at least (sort of) acknowledges what’s been going on: The change is part of Samsung’s ongoing product refinement process. It relates only to the activation phrase and cross-app actions across select Samsung apps, and does not affect the availability, integration, or scope of the Perplexity experience on the Galaxy S26 series. Any future feature updates will be communicated if and when available. Basically, the point Samsung is trying to emphasize here is that Perplexity support on the Galaxy S26 isn’t going away — despite that vanishing announcement. The end goal is the same deep integration we heard about before, presumably including full wake word support.
While the “refinement” currently underway is making that a bit messy, Samsung still seems committed to the S26 offering users their choice of AI assistants. That said, we’re hugely looking forward to those future updates hopefully clarifying exactly what that support will look like long-term. Update, March 11, 2026 (11:30 PM ET): We’re still waiting to hear back from Samsung regarding our inquiry. In our original article, however, we noted that Perplexity CEO, Aravind Srinivas, posted on X saying the company planned to change the wake word for Perplexity on the Galaxy S26 series to “Hey Perplexity” instead of “Hey Plex.”
Just hours after confirming this, Srinivas deleted the post, once again fueling speculation about the AI assistant’s future on Samsung’s latest flagships.
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Here’s what could be another piece of the puzzle: Remember Samsung’s announcement last month about bringing “Hey Plex” to the Galaxy S26 family? Samsung has taken down the original announcement from its online newsroom.
You can still view archived copies, and as far as we can see, Samsung doesn’t appear to have posted any specific correction to the announcement. (Thanks: Dylan H) Original article, March 11, 2026 (12:21 PM ET): Samsung’s latest smartphone lineup is finally here, as the S26 series ends pre-orders and enters its phase of general retail availability. But as more and more Samsung fans get their hands on those S26 models, we’re noticing a spate of reports that claim the phone’s much-hyped Perplexity integration isn’t quite working. What’s going on here?
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