Galaxy S26 switching to 'Hey Perplexity' wake word for its third AI assistant

Samsung announced previously that the Galaxy S26 series would support a “Hey Plex” wake word for the Perplexity app, but this is now changing to “Hey Perplexity.”

The first software update for the Galaxy S26 series is now rolling out and, with it, the “Hey Plex” wake word has vanished. That was noticed by SamMobile, who also shared screenshots of what the always-listening hotword experience looked like.

But it’s not gone for good.

Confirmed by Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on Twitter/X, the Galaxy S26 series will not be removing this feature permanently, but instead, it has simply been removed temporarily while the two companies are updating the wake word to “Hey Perplexity.”

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There’s no stated reason for why the wake word is changing, but it’s not hard to imagine that a certain other company might have had a problem with the “Hey Plex” choice. That’s purely speculation on our part, though. We’ll update this article if any new information comes to light.

In the meantime, you can still use “Hey Google” for Gemini or “Hey Bixby” for Bixby, because these phones have so many options.

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