You can now disable Samsung’s devoted Bixby button

Ironically, the easiest way to do this will be to press the button on the left hand side of the phone.

After heading to My Apps section, you need to go to All apps and download the latest updates to all Bixby services.

You may also want to disable automatic updates of Bixby by going to Bixby Home Settings and tapping the toggle beside Auto-update Bixby.

Now, Samsung has relented and made it possible to disable the button – to an extent. But the new update should provide some relief for Galaxy users who’ve activated Bixby by accident too often for comfort and those who want to use the phone they paid for in the manner they want.

It doesn’t look like you can programme anything else on the button though, so if you disable its Bixby functionality, you’ll just have a button on your phone that does nothing.

I’m not alone in my dislike of Bixby, which is impossible to completely deactivate and tries to impose itself on your life at inopportune moments, like when you’re trying to, say, take a picture.

Hope to see the Android 8.0 Oreo on other Smasung devices really soon! Under the heading “Select what to open with the Bixby key”, there is now an option for “Don’t open anything”. Once they’ve been updated, open Bixby by either pressing the Bixby button or swiping right on your home screen and then head into Settings. Most of us are familiar with these (still rudimentary) assistive qualities, which synergize nicely with voice controls and natural-language searches to set the stage for a future where we just talk to our smart and informed pocket computers.

Isn’t Bixby pushy enough even without the button? This is accomplished by accessing homescreens and scrolling over to the Bixby screen where a toggle should be present to turn it off. But the only issue with Bixby is that it does not bring anything novel into the voice assistant technology and it does not promise to be the one to single out from other voice assistants in the market.