When Samsung first launched the Galaxy S8, the company introduced a dedicated button for its personal assistant Bixby. The new dedicated button was a quick way of launching Bixby, but no one actually wanted to use the personal assistant when it first launched. And the worst part of all this was the fact that there was no way of customizing the button to open a different personal assistant or lunch a different app.
Like most other Android features, there were a bunch of different “hacks” and apps that you could use to re-map the button, but there was no official solution.
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However, with the new Galaxy S10 line, Samsung is introducing a new option that will let you configure the Bixby key. You can now have the Bixby key open Bixby with either a single or double press, and have it open an app or trigger a quick command with the other shortcut.
“To offer users more freedom to utilize Bixby’s handy button, the Galaxy S10 introduces Bixby Key Customization.5 Now, you can customize the button to launch Bixby with either a single or double press, and map the other option to launch your favorite app or Quick command. It’s just another convenient way to make Bixby your own,” the company said in a blog post.
And yes — Samsung’s older Galaxy flagships will also be picking up the new Bixby key configuration through a software update. As spotted by The Verge, the feature will be coming to older Bixby-enabled Samsung flagships with the Android Pie update. Finally.