After you download and install the update, you'll find new options in the Bixby Key settings on your device. With these controls, you can choose what a single press of the Bixby button does and what a double press triggers. Just about a week ago, Samsung confirmed something pretty exciting — it was going to finally let users remap the Bixby button on their Galaxy phones. As of February 28, 2019, a software update is rolling out that enables this functionality. Basically, XDA created a Tasker script that enables the functionality and then turned it into an APK. All you need to do is download the app file, select it as the app you want to open with a single press of the Bixby button, and when you do that, you'll get an option to have it always open Google Assistant. Thanks to the folks at XDA , a workaround has been created for remapping the Bixby button to open the Google Assistant. While you still can't completely disable Bixby, you can move it to a double press so that you're less likely to trigger it and have your single press do something more useful — such as turning on your flashlight or enabling Do Not Disturb. You can also use the single press to open up another app on your phone, but as spotted by Dan Seifert from The Verge, Samsung blocks you from remapping it to open Google Assistant. Because of course it does. In any case, if you want to learn how to remap the Bixby button on your own phone when the update lands, be sure to check out our how-to guide below. How to remap the Bixby button on your Galaxy Phone to launch any app<doc-sep>Samsung first introduced the now infamous Bixby button on its Galaxy S8 and in the time since, users have been actively looking for ways to use it for other purposes. Now, Samsung has finally made that functionality available on several devices. Here’s how to remap the Bixby button on the Galaxy S10, S9, S8, Note 9, and Note 8. Remap the Bixby button on Samsung Galaxy S10, S9, S8, Note 9, Note 8 Thanks to an official software update and an app update from Samsung, Bixby button remapping is available on every Galaxy flagship that has the hardware baked in. This means users can easily remap the Bixby button on their shiny new Galaxy S10, or do the same on the Galaxy S9, S9+, S8, S8+, as well as the Galaxy Note 9 and Note 8. Update Bixby via Samsung Galaxy Store Access Bixby button settings Customize Bixby button actions 1. Update Bixby via the Galaxy Store The first thing you’ll need to do is update Bixby itself from the Samsung Galaxy Store. Luckily, doing this is quite easy. Simply head to the app drawer and locate the Store. From there, go to My Page and then Update. On this screen, you’ll likely see a few Bixby apps in need of updates. To do them all at once, simply hit the Update All button at the top of the screen. 2. Access Bixby button Settings After you’ve updated all of Bixby’s apps, head to the Settings menu on your Galaxy device. You should then see a section titled Advanced Features and under that, Bixby Key. This process should be the same for the Galaxy S10, S9, S8, Note 9, and Note 8, but you’ll need to ensure that the device is on the latest system update. If you’re still on a beta version, this won’t work. Note: If you were previously using an app to remap the Bixby button, you’ll need to disable it to access this setting. 3. Customize Bixby button actions The last step to remapping the Bixby button on your Galaxy S10, S9, S8, Note 9, or Note 8 is to pick what action you’d like it to serve. You can customize the button to perform a different action with either a single or double tap of the button. Shame is, you can only do one or the other. If you use the single tap, for example, Bixby Home will still launch on a double-tap. Regardless, a long-press will always open Bixby Voice. Despite that, being able to remap the Bixby button without the need for a third-party app is a welcome change, and something we’ve been waiting a couple of years for. It’s just a shame that you can’t remap it to Google Assistant. More on Samsung: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:<doc-sep>How to remap Bixby to Google Assistant on the Samsung Galaxy S10, Note 9, and other One UI devices At Samsung Unpacked, Samsung announced their new Samsung Galaxy S10 series and Galaxy Fold. After the press discovered a new option in Bixby, Samsung confirmed that the button would be natively remappable. With an update released to the Bixby app on older One UI devices today, this is finally possible. However, it wasn’t all good news. Samsung is limiting the apps you can launch with the button. That means the Bixby button can’t natively launch Google Assistant, but we have a solution. Samsung blacklisted other assistant apps from being able to be used by the button. That includes Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana along with Google Assistant. We were able to get around this by using a Tasker script and exporting it as an APK. This means all you need to do is install the app, select it in the settings, and choose Google when you press the button. This app also supports more than just Google Assistant. We were able to also launch the Cortana app, but it doesn’t work with Amazon Alexa. In theory, any app that supports answering voice commands can be remapped to the button with this method. Any phone that supports Bixby button remapping, including the Galaxy S10/S10+/S10e, Galaxy S9/S9+, and the Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy Note 8 will support using Assistant. Remap Bixby with Bixby Button Assistant Remapper Download the Bixby Button Assistant Remapper APK Install the app Open Bixby Voice Settings Select Bixby key Choose Double press to open Bixby Select Use single press Toggle it on and tap the gear icon to choose an app Find Bixby Button Assistant Remapper and select it Press the physical Bixby button and select the assistant app you want to use (click always so it doesn’t ask every time) That’s it! It is also possible to do this without the required app by setting up a Bixby quick command. You just set a quick command to “open assistant.” I would recommend the app method, though. In my testing of the quick command, it wasn’t as fast and it only worked around 20% of the time. Other users have reported very reliable results, so your mileage may vary. Remap Bixby to Google Assistant with Quick Commands Open up Bixby Voice Go to Quick Commands in the Bixby dropdown menu Create a new Quick Command and call it “Assistant” Set Quick command word or phrase to “assistant” Select “Type a command” In this setting, type “open assistant” Save this Quick Command Go to Bixby Voice Settings Select Bixby Key Select Double press to open Bixby Select Quick Command Go to Quick Command options and select “Assistant” That’s it! It’s nice that Samsung is finally letting users remap the button to something else on the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 9, and other One UI devices. While you can’t fully disable Bixby, you can relegate it to a double-press and put your preferred app to the forefront. Hopefully, Samsung doesn’t do anything in the future to break this workaround.<doc-sep>
Earlier this week, Samsung released an update to the Bixby app for its Galaxy S8, S9, S10, Note 8, and Note 9 smartphones that finally addresses something we’ve been asking for since Bixby’s debut: the ability to natively reprogram the hardware button on the side of a Samsung phone to do something other than just launch Bixby. That’s right, you can now use the Bixby button to launch any number of apps, such as the camera, Twitter, Gmail, Google Maps, or whatever you want. But unfortunately, Samsung is blocking the ability to use it for the Google Assistant or other virtual assistants, like Microsoft’s Cortana or Amazon’s Alexa. For that, you’ll still need to rely on a third party app. Here’s how to remap the Bixby button to something more useful: Make sure your Bixby Voice app is up-to-date. You can check within the settings section of the app itself or through Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store. You’ll need to be on version 2.1.04.18 or later for this to work. Launch Bixby Voice and tap the three vertical dots on right side of the screen. Click the Settings option. Scroll down to Bixby key and tap to open the configuration options. Here you have an option to set the key to open Bixby on one press and a secondary function on a double press, or vice versa. Choose which option you prefer and then tap the secondary function to choose which app to launch. Note that you can’t fully disable the Bixby button; it has to be mapped to either a single or double press. You can choose to launch a specific app by tapping the cog wheel on the right. Or you can program a Bixby routine to run when you press the button. As you’ll see when you go to the app selection screen, there’s no way to natively launch the Google Assistant with the Bixby button. To make that work, you’ll need to rely on a third-party app — the folks over at XDA Developers have created one and put together steps on how to make it work. Note that you’ll have to sideload the app, which comes with some security risks, so proceed at your own risk. If you don’t want to deal with sideloading, there’s a 99 cent app called BixAssist available in the Google Play Store that performs the same function. That’s all there is to it — you now have a little more control over what the hardware buttons on your phone do. Hopefully, Samsung will improve this in the future and allow for native support of Google Assistant and the ability to fully disable launching Bixby entirely. But for now, the button is slightly more functional than before. Update, 8:10AM, March 5, 2019: Added information about BixAssist app from the Google Play Store.