Samsung introduced its virtual voice-assistant, dubbed Bixby, on the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ handsets earlier in the year. It was slated to compete with other such digital assistants, like the Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft's Cortana, and Apple's Siri. Samsung's desire to impress fans with the digital assistant was such that it included a physical button on the side of the handsets, which when pressed would immediately activate the feature. However, since then, consumers have reported accidentally pressing the button that leads to waking up the functionality unintentionally.
So, at last Samsung has come out with a solution for this issue.
What is the problem with the button?
After the feature rolled out with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, fans were quick to point out that the physical Bixby button caused a few problems. When kept inside the pocket, the button on the phones often get pressed accidentally. This summons the voice-assistant, even though the users do not want it. So, customers have been asking Samsung for a fix to this issue for quite a while now.
After months of complaints regarding the button, Samsung has finally taken steps to fix the problem that users have been facing. The South Korean company launched a new update with firmware version 2.0.03.3. Through this update, users can disable the key altogether if they want to.
How to make the necessary changes?
Normally, users need to tap the Bixby button to open the Bixby Home, while long pressing the button will immediately open the Bixby Voice functionality. However, with the latest update, users can disable these features. To make the changes, users will need to open Bixby Home and tap the settings icon displayed on top of the screen.
Clicking on this will immediately prompt whether the user wants to disable the Bixby key functionality on the handset. Selecting 'yes' will ensure that the Bixby button will no longer summon the voice-assistant.
Users can also access the same option by going to the Bixby Home, followed by the Settings menu inside it. Users will then have to select the Bixby Key and finally select the option 'Don’t open anything.' With the functionality of the key disabled, the button has no use and pressing it does not result in any activity.
Samsung does not support remapping the Bixby key to access other functionalities and applications. The South Korean company severely reprimanded third-party developers who did the same. So, even after disabling the Bixby key, users will not be able to use the same for other functions.
