Samsung Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+, Galaxy Note 9, others begin receiving the Bixby button remapping update

South Korean technology giant Samsung had promised a few days back that it will be rolling out an update post which users will be able to remap the Bixby button on their older Galaxy flagship smartphones. This announcement was made by Samsung after it introduced the feature in its latest Galaxy S10 flagship lineup.

The feature will be seen on Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9 Plus, Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy Note 8 smartphones. So, that’s all the smartphones from Samsung that come with a Bixby button. However, your device must be updated to Android Pie/One Touch UI software so that you can get the update that will bring this Bixby button remapping feature.

After they get the update, users will be able to remap the Bixby button to launch other apps like Google Maps, camera or more. However, you would still not be able to use it to launch other digital voice assistants like Google Assistant or Cortana using it. You would have to rely on apps to use them.

Since Bixby was launched Samsung users could not launch the digital assistant of their choice by default, as they only had the option of talking to Bixby by pressing the button on their smartphone. And even with this update, this will surely not change.

However, even after the update, you would not be able to disable the button entirely. Also, if you really dislike Bixby, you would still have to live with it being your smartphone, as Samsung is not rolling out an option to remove its native digital assistant via the update.

But then, the fact that you can choose which app shows up on pressing the said button should be a welcome change for most Samsung Galaxy flagship users, considering that Bixby garnered appreciation like Google Assistant, Siri or Cortana.

It is worth noticing that on single pressing the button, the app of your choice will launch, and double-pressing it will open Bixby on your device. And no matter what your Settings are, if you long press the button, it will always launch Bixby.

Do you own a Samsung Galaxy flagship device? Let us know in the comments below which app would you choose to launch via the Bixby button once you get the update!