After the Note 8 debacle, Samsung really wanted the Galaxy S8 and S8+ to be a big hit and a big hit they were. The eighth iteration of the Galaxy S lineup introduced many new features, the best of which was probably the gorgeous 18:9 display. Some of the features though were not as well received, like that new button on the side dedicated to Bixby. Bixby, being another AI assistant but from Samsung. So the Galaxy S8 had Google Assistant and Bixby. It didn’t take long for developers to come up with ways to remap the Bixby button thanks to the demand. Samsung soon pushed updates that’d allow users to disable Bixby. With another update now, Samsung makes sure that disabling Bixby completely kills the Bixby button too.
The story isn’t really as simple as it sounds though. When it was launched, Bixby was a half-baked product and naturally, it didn’t give off a good first impression. Maybe if there weren’t such stakes riding on the Galaxy S8 the company would have released Bixby with the Note 8 instead. Regardless, Samsung did heavily promote Bixby, despite the lack of features at the time. They even pushed OTA updates that would render all those Bixby button remapping apps useless. Clearly, they didn’t want users to be able to avoid Bixby and it is understandable. But that was before users got annoyed by the accidental button presses that would launch Bixby and even wake up the device. And that was when Samsung sent OTA updates again, allowing users to disable the Bixby button.
It was only a partial victory for the users though. Because while the Bixby button no longer launched Bixby upon being pressed, it still did wake up the device. The device wake ups were part two of the Bixby button problem after all. A user could still accidentally wake up the device and when has that ever been nice on the battery. But finally, Samsung has relieved users of the annoyance. The company is now rolling out updates to Bixby that would kill the Bixby button entirely if a user chooses to disable Bixby. Sammobile reports that the new update also adds a new feature to the Bixby service. It can now analyze your saved contacts when the call command is issued to Bixby. This may allow Bixby to better recognize contact names stored in your phone.
How to update Bixby
You just have to update everything on your phone that starts with the word Bixby. To get the latest updates, open Galaxy Apps on your Galaxy S8/S8+/Note8 and tap the three dot menu button in the top-right corner. Select My apps > Updates > Update all. In case you have disabled Galaxy Apps (nobody’s blaming you by the way), you can simply download and install the required APKs from APKMirror – Bixby, Bixby Home/Hello Bixby, and Bixby Service.
A dead button on the side probably wouldn’t be that annoying. Now let’s hope Samsung would soon allow users to remap the button even.
Source: SamMobile
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