You Can Now Disable the Annoying Bixby Button on Samsung Phones

Bixby, Samsung’s new voice assistant which works kind of like Apple’s Siri, was introduced with the Galaxy S8. The assistant was later added to the Note 8 as well.

To activate the assistant, Samsung had added a dedicated button to its phones, similar to Amazon’s Alexa. The button is located underneath the volume rocker on the Note 8 and the Galaxy S8.

Could Not Be Customized or Disabled

Sure the feature is useful but the problem is that the button cannot be customized for any other useful task. Samsung has refused to give the users necessary rights for reassigning the button to other apps and features (as the camera button for example).

The Korean phone maker even blocked third party apps which could help the users customize the button. The positioning of the button has also been quite a nuisance to the users as Bixby is triggered when users try to adjust the volume.

Samsung Releases an Update

Samsung has finally relented, and has released an update which lets you disable the Bixby button and stop it from launching Bixby Home on both, Galaxy S8 and Note 8.

The update is not yet available on every active device at the moment but will eventually be launching on all existing models. This will be a refreshing change for those who were annoyed by activating Bixby by mistake every time they pick their phone up.

Although you can disable the button, you cannot assign it to other apps right now. Whether Samsung would add the functionality or not is up for debate, for now you’ll have to without it.

-via The Verge