Something to look forward to: With its recently launched Galaxy Note 9, Samsung brought one of the best Android handsets to market. But there's one element that infuriates most users: you can't officially disable the dedicated Bixby assistant button. That, however, could soon change.
Samsung put a lot of effort into Bixby 2.0---the latest version of its personal assistant that arrived alongside the Note 9---but not everyone is a fan. As is the case with its older handsets, Samsung included a dedicated Bixby launch button on the side of the phone; a feature that's easy to activate by accident when trying to lower the volume or simply holding a handset. But whereas the button can be disabled in the settings area of the Note 8, S8, and S9, there's no such option available in the Note 9.
Thankfully for owners of Samsung's latest flagship, the ability to disable the Bixby button should arrive in the next few weeks. Replying to a complaint, Samsung Germany tweeted that the company is working on implementing the option and it is set to return by the end of September.
Hi Max, we are working on it. Deactivation of the Bixby button on lock screen should return until end of September. ^JB
--- Samsung Deutschland (@SamsungDE) 3 September 2018
The tweet does suggest that Bixby will only be deactivated when the phone is locked, but it's still better than nothing at all. It could also be that this is an error in the wording and there will be an option to disable the Bixby key completely. Either way, it should appease annoyed owners who keep accidentally pressing the button.
As Samsung already lets users turn off the assistant on its other phones, it seems the company was trying to encourage people to use Bixby 2.0 on the Note 9 by not including the option. And while an official remapping ability would also be welcome, most people just use third-party software to enable this function.