Samsung Bixby App Opening? How To Disable Frustrating Galaxy Phone Window

Samsung has put a lot of effort into launching its Bixby virtual assistant, but the company is finally making a concession to Samsung Galaxy users who’ve been frustrated with the program’s hardware. The company’s newest update will allow users to prevent the Galaxy S8’s Bixby button from opening its Bixby Home app, according to Sammobile.

How To Disable Bixby Home

The update is rolling out gradually to Samsung Galaxy S8 owners, but if you get it, here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Open Bixby Home.

2. Press the Settings gear button on the top of the screen.

3. Disable the toggle button under the Bixby key.

The move is a notable step down on Samsung’s part, as the company has been less than flexible about the virtual assistant in the past. The S8 features a dedicated physical Bixby button on the phone’s side that previously opened up Samsung’s Google Now-like Bixby Home app, which displayed weather, daily reminders and other situational notifications. Third-party developers had briefly figured out a way to reassign the button for other applications, but Samsung quickly closed that loophole.

Samsung’s update won’t give full flexibility to users who aren’t fans of Bixby, but it’ll at least make accidental presses a problem of the past. If you disable instant launches of Bixby Home, you’ll still be able to access Bixby Voice by holding the Bixby button.

Bixby has been a central part of Samsung’s rollout strategy for the S8, even if it hasn’t had the smoothest rollout itself. While the Galaxy S8 series launched this spring, voice control on Bixby didn’t arrive until several months later. The program has also been Samsung’s proprietary vehicle for going head-to-head with other popular virtual home assistants like Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. The Bixby assistant suite features tools like its smarter voice control, along with other augmented reality and notification features.

For Samsung, Bixby is still in its early stages as a voice assistant platform, but the company plans on making additional investments to improve its scope. Samsung had long been rumored to be working on a smart speaker competitor to models like Amazon’s Echo series and in August, Samsung confirmed that it was in development on a unit that would feature Bixby functionality.