Smartphone and software manufacturers have come up with a lot of assistants that should make our life easier and more comfortable. At least it should be so, but in reality it often turns out completely differently. A simple example is the Bixby assistant on Samsung smartphones. In some countries it seems to work, but even there users doubt its practical use. Representatives of the company themselves speak less and less about the benefits of this product at events. In the company's new smartphones, she at least removed a separate start button for the assistant, but it still sometimes comes out at the most unnecessary moment, which is very annoying. The nice thing is that there is a way to disable it, and now I will tell you how to do it even on the newest devices.
He may not be bad, but very intrusive.
What is Bixby
Bixby once again reminded of itself when the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 came out with this assistant on board. Now most of the users of this smartphone are wondering how to turn it off. Interestingly, Samsung is interested in having its own assistant on the phone and has made it difficult to disable it. It's so easy to go into the settings and turn it off with a quick call to the power button. But “there is at least one way out of all hopeless situations,” as the hero of one Soviet film sang.
Ever since Samsung launched Bixby on the Galaxy S8 three years ago, it has failed to become the number one virtual assistant for users. Even Siri has done much better in this regard. The problem is that Bixby is not as good at many things as it is said to be. This is why many people prefer to use Google Assistant. Fortunately, while not the most obvious, there is a way to disable Bixby on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20.
How to disable Bixby
On Galaxy Note 20 and Note 20 Ultra, the on-board assistant is automatically turned on with the power button, which must be held down. That is, the gesture that used to turn off the phone and continues to do it on other smartphones, on the latest Samsung models, calls the assistant. This action is configured by default.
How to turn off Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and S20
In order to turn off the Samsung phone, on the power button of which “hangs” Bixby, you must press the volume up button simultaneously with the power button. By holding them down for a couple of seconds, you will see the usual menu for turning off or rebooting the device. Then choose what you need.
But back to how to decouple Bixby from the power button. To do this, open the control panel by swiping from top to bottom on the screen, as you usually do, to change the volume, brightness, or turn on airplane mode.
This is the power button.
Now click on the power icon, which will be next to the settings gear.
You will open the phone power management menu, in which you will see all the standard items encountered when you turn off or restart the phone. Here you will need to pay attention to a small and very inconspicuous button at the bottom of the screen, which is responsible for setting the side buttons. We're almost there.
Click on the inconspicuous button below and configure the actions on the power button.
In the menu that opens, you can choose what will happen when you double and long press the power button. By double-clicking, you can “hang up” to launch the camera, call Bixby or launch an application. With a long press, you can choose either the same Bixby, which is set by default, or the usual shutdown of the device.
When Siri was turned on on the power button at iPhone, no questions asked. There is no alternative there, and users usually switch from iPhone to iPhone, that is, they will be familiar with everything. When this is done on Android and you have to get used to the new, it's not very good. And accidentally pressing the button is quite simple. As a result, you will call the assistant and he will infuriate you, as he infuriated Samsung users with a separate button.
Why disable Bixby
There are a number of reasons why you might want to get rid of Samsung's stock voice assistant. First, you may prefer some other option. For example, you are more comfortable with the Google Assistant. You might just be annoyed by Bixby itself or the way it is imposed on users. But you can also be annoyed by the fact that Bixby pops up every time you hold down the power button.
In any case, even without the possibility of turning off the assistant, which I described above, transferring his call to the power button is good. This is much better than a separate button, which is constantly buggy and more likely to be triggered by accident. This was the case with the Galaxy S8 and everyone didn't like it.
Remember that annoying button?
What will I lose by turning off Bixby
By disabling Bixby, you have nothing to lose but Bixby. In fact, you are just gaining. For example, the ability to double-press the power button and open the camera app. Or press and hold to turn off or restart your smartphone. And some other scripts if you choose to customize them. If you know such, write about it in our Telegram chat.
Pretty much everything Bixby does you can do with Google Assistant, and it will likely get even better. So if you turn off Bixby it won't be a real waste. And it won't affect other Samsung services on your device.