Many users welcomed the arrival of Bixby via the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. The high-end smartphones have a dedicated button for Samsung's resident artificial intelligence helper, which has been compared to Apple's very own Siri. However, there are others who don't find Bixby helpful. With this, Samsung released an update to allow users to disable the button.
According to The Verge, Samsung is now open to making the Bixby button customizable. The South Korean tech giant has launched a new update for Galaxy S8 and S8+ handsets that will prevent the button from opening Bixby Home. This will address the issue often encountered by the users, where they accidentally call on Bixby by pressing the dedicated button.
Specifically, Galaxy S8 users unintentionally launch Bixby when adjusting the system volume. This is because the button is located near the volume down switch.
Sammobile reported that the update to disable the Bixby button has rolled out for some Galaxy S8 and S8+ users but Samsung is likely to release the update for all affected devices.
The latest system update for Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ handsets will introduce a toggle at the top of the Bixby Home screen once installed. The toggle will let the users choose if they want to launch Bixby if the dedicated button is pressed. The Bixby settings menu will also include the toggle option, according to BGR.
Once the option to disable the dedicated button is chosen, Bixby Home can only be launched by swiping the home screen to the left, lessening the chances of accidentally calling the voice assistant while decreasing the volume.
Before the latest Galaxy S8 update was released, users were forced to use third-party applications to disable the Bixby button. However, Samsung was firm in keeping the button's functionality by blocking these apps from accessing the smartphone system.
