Get ready for “Hey Perplexity” as app preps new wake word

Last month, new Samsung Galaxy S26 owners found themselves scratching their heads a bit over what was going on with their phones’ supposed integration with Perplexity AI. The companies announced that the S26 would support the platform’s “Hey Plex” wake word for quick access to the AI agent. Right from the start, something seemed off, with the app not appearing in the phone’s voice wake-up list, and even users who manually installed later found that “Hey Plex” had stopped working. What in the world was going on?

While the statement Samsung ultimately shared with us insisted that this hiccup amounted to only an “ongoing product refinement process” and “does not affect the availability, integration, or scope of the Perplexity experience on the Galaxy S26 series,” that didn’t do a lot to actually explain the “why” of this mess. Maybe our biggest clue arrived courtesy of a since-deleted tweet from Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, where he claimed his company was in the process of transitioning to a new “Hey Perplexity” wake word.

With the release of Perplexity’s new 2.81.2 update on Android, we’re now seeing the actual evidence of this transition.

These screens aren’t yet being publicly used in the app, but they’re now prepped in anticipation of the new wake word:

As you can plainly see, “Hey Perplexity” is coming to the app. Why would the company feel the need to backtrack on its existing wake word like this?

Well, we haven’t yet publicly seen it offer any explanation, but the reigning theory kicking about is that the AI company is looking to distinguish itself from the Plex media streamer.

One thing we can see is that Perplexity already appears to be bracing itself for the inevitable tongue-twisters users will face as they stumble over pronouncing the full “perplexity” time and time again. Adjacent to “Hey Perplexity” references in app strings, we’ve also spotted a couple other sound-alikes:

With any luck, this progress means it may not be long now before “Hey Perplexity” support formally arrives — and we finally get the full-fledged Galaxy S26 experience we’ve been promised. Until then, we’ll be waiting patiently in Purple City.