If you don’t have any intention of using Bixby on the Galaxy S8, then you can remap it to a number of other functions like Google Assistant, an app, and more.
Samsung doesn’t really enjoy relying on Google for applications and services when it comes to their smartphones. We’ve seen the company creating duplicates of even the very basic applications on their phones and tablets for a while. With the launch of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, the company decided they wanted to get into the virtual assistant market.
So to compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft, Amazon and now Apple, we have Bixby.
Bixby is what Samsung calls their virtual assistant and they went as far as to actually add a dedicated hardware button for it. So instead of having to launch an application or say a hotword, you now have a button you can press on the side of the phone to launch it. However, not many people want to use this virtual assistant so today I’m going to show you how to remap the Bixby button on the Galaxy S8 and S8+ to something else entirely.
Galaxy S8 Change Bixby Button
- Download and install the Bixbye application
- Launch Bixbye
- Agree to the terms and tap the Continue button
- Tap the blue Voice Assistant text
- Choose what you want to remap the Bixby button to
- Tap the toggle at the top right
- Scroll down to the Services section
- Tap on the Bixbye option
- Tap the toggle to enable the feature
- Then tap the OK button to grant the proper permissions to Bixbye
Explanation
There are a number of different options to choose from when you launch the Bixby application and choose what you want to remap the Bixby button on the Galaxy S8 to. By default it will be set to the default Voice Assistant (which can be Google Assistant, Cortana, Google Now, etc.). But you also have other things to choose from. However, you should be aware that not all of these work properly for everyone. As the intro page says, the application is still considered the to be alpha.
I was able to get it working properly with the Voice Assistant option as well using the Bixby button to launch a specific application. I didn’t go through them all, but did notice that the Do Nothing and Toggle Flashlight options were not really working for me. The developer notes in the XDA thread that some people say certain options require a long press while others end up working right with a double press. So again, your mileage may vary.
So to get started, just go ahead and install the application from the Play Store by tapping the link in Step 1 of the guide. Once installed, open the application and agree to the terms so you can get past the intro message. You’ll see some blue text on the screen and tapping it will expand a drop down menu with a number of options to choose from. By default it is set to Voice Assistant (which for me is Google Assistant), but you can change this to something else.
Experiment with these options because again, it’s likely that not all options will work for everyone. You will need to tap the toggle at the top right to enable the feature though. If this is your first time enabling it, you’ll be sent to a Settings page and told to enable some permissions for Bixbye. Once everything is setup though, you don’t have to open the application again and can simply use the Bixby button on the Galaxy S8 for whatever you set it to.
Just know that you always have the ability to uninstall the application if you’re tired of using it and this will reset the preferences and allow the Bixby button to launch the Bixby application.
