How to reprogram the Bixby button on a Samsung Galaxy S8, S9, S10, Note 8 or Note 9

Earlier this week, Samsung released an update of the Bixby app for its Galaxy S8, S9, S10, Note 8 and Note 9 smartphones, which finally responds to something we've been asking for since the beginning of Bixby: the possibility to reprogram the hardware button in native mode. on the side of a Samsung phone to do anything other than just launch Bixby.

That's right, you can now use the Bixby button to launch an unlimited number of applications, such as camera, Twitter, Gmail, Google Maps or whatever you want. But unfortunately, Samsung blocks the possibility of using it for the Google Assistant or other virtual assistants, such as Cortana from Microsoft or Alexa from Amazon. To do this, you will always need to use a third-party application.

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 in the settings section of the application itself or through the Samsung Galaxy Apps store. You must be on version 2.1.04.18 or later for this to work.
• Start Bixby Voice and tap the three vertical dots on the right side of the screen. Click the Settings option.

• Scroll to the Bixby key and press to open the configuration options.

• Here you have the option to configure the key to open Bixby on one press and a secondary function on a double press, or vice versa. Choose which option you prefer, then tap the secondary function to choose which application to launch. Note that you can not completely disable the Bixby button. it must be mapped on a single or double support.

• You can choose to launch a specific application by pressing the wheel on the right. Or you can program a Bixby routine to run when you press the button.
• As you will see when you access the application selection screen, you will not be able to launch the Google Assistant natively with the Bixby button. For this to work, you need to use a third-party application. The developers of XDA have created an application and put in place steps to make it work. Note that you will have to side-load the application, which involves some security risks, so proceed at your own risk.

That's all there is to it – you now have a little more control over what the hardware buttons on your phone do. I hope that Samsung will improve this in the future and allow native support for Google Assistant and the ability to completely disable the launch of Bixby. But for now, the button is slightly more functional than before.

Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence the editorial content, although Vox Media can earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. For more information, see our ethics policy.