Samsung really wants its customers to use its Bixby assistant software, which is why the company keeps putting dedicated Bixby buttons on its smartphones.
Now the company is finally giving users a way to remap the Bixby button so that it can do something other than launch the company’s assistant software. Sort of.
The Verge reports that the Samsung Galaxy S10 line of smartphones lets you use the Bixby key two ways: you can single-press it or double-tap it. And you can assign one of those options to something other than Bixby.
Update: Bixby button remapping will also come to other Samsung flagships including the Galaxy S8, S9, Note 8, and Note 9 smartphones running Android 9 Pie with the Samsung One Touch UI.
Want to open the camera, Gmail, or Facebook with a single button press? You can choose the app you want to launch… but a double-tap will still open Bixby.
Or you can assign an action to a double-tap and use a single-click to open Bixby.
What you can’t do is disable Bixby altogether. And holding the button down will launch the Bixby voice service no matter what other options you’ve set.
Still, it’s nice that Bixby-haters at least have an opportunity to use that extra button on their phones for something.
I wonder if that will come to the S9 in a software update. I do not use Bixby or any other digital assistant/smart speakers.
That’s just crazy enough, it might work….