With Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on January 22, 2025 just around the corner, the company has shared several teasers on social media hinting at key new features. It appears that the South Korean tech giant is ready to showcase advancements that could change the way users interact with their smartphones. This time, the spotlight is on the possible return of the familiar Bixby voice assistant, which could play a far more advanced role in the Galaxy S25 series.

For those who may not remember, Bixby has been Samsung’s native voice assistant since 2017. It started with the launch of the Galaxy S8 series. However, it did not make much of a splash compared to competitors like Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa. Over the years, Assistant lagged behind, and Samsung eventually stepped back from promoting it. But it appears the company isn’t ready to give up on Bixby just yet.

A recent teaser video for the Galaxy Unpacked event shows a woman asking a virtual assistant to find a pet-friendly Italian restaurant with outdoor seating, then book a reservation and share the details with a friend. This kind of seamless interaction is a far cry from the Bixby we’re used to, which has always struggled with complex requests.

Interestingly, Samsung is already testing the enhanced version of Bixby on the Galaxy W25 and W25 Flip in China. Powered by a large language model (LLM) similar to Gemini and ChatGPT, the new Bixby is able to understand more subtle commands, respond to context, and even provide results in text and video formats. It can translate web pages, and even work with Microsoft Office files like Word and PowerPoint. In terms of design, the upgraded Bixby now offers a clean, modern interface with the ability to multitask, allowing users to drag Bixby on top of other apps for quick interactions.

Although these enhancements have been available to Chinese users for some time, the Galaxy Unpacked event will likely mark the global launch of this enhanced Bixby. If it comes to the Galaxy S25, it could make a real difference to the way people use their phones. Unlike the previous, more basic version of Bixby, this new iteration should be able to handle complex commands that combine multiple functions at once. For example, asking it to find a restaurant, make a reservation, and send details to someone — all at once — was previously out of reach for the assistant. The new Bixby will also reportedly have on-screen awareness, meaning users can ask it about things currently displayed on their phone.

This is especially exciting because it won’t just benefit the latest Samsung devices. Since the AI ​​upgrade doesn’t require the latest hardware on the Galaxy S25 series, existing Samsung smartphones can also get the update, allowing the new features to reach a wider audience. Whether this updated Bixby will be able to compete with Gemini and Siri remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Samsung is definitely on to something here. We will find it soon.