Samsung takes pity on us, makes it harder to activate Bixby on Note 9

While Samsung is continuously pushing its Bixby virtual assistant as one of its flagship products, it’s hard to deny that the overwhelming majority of people think that Bixby needs a lot of work if it’s ever going to take hold. But to give credit where credit is due: Bixby has come a long way.

Even if you find yourself in the pro-Bixby camp, it’s pretty universal that the dedicated Bixby button on Samsung devices is a huge pain. Not only is it annoying that you can’t change the Bixby button’s function to open your preferred virtual assistant (*cough* Google Assistant *cough*), it’s physical placement underneath the volume rocker causes accidental launching of Bixby more often than anyone would like.

In the past, Samsung gave us the option to completely disable the Bixby button, which was a nice compromise. But on the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, this option doesn’t exist. But in the latest update to Bixby, Samsung is at least giving users the ability to make it harder to accidentally launch Bixby via the Bixby button.

Once you’ve updated to the latest update of Bixby (rolling out today), in Bixby’s settings you’ll be able to choose how the Bixby button works. You can pick to launch Bixby by a single press of the Bixby button or with a double tap, which is the new option. Obviously, the double tap option will cut down on accidental launches of Bixby because you’ll have to hit it twice in rapid succession, which is something you probably don’t do too often on the other buttons.

Is this as good as being able to disable the button? No. No, it definitely is not. But hey, at least it will cut down on Bixby popping up out of nowhere in an infuriating fashion.

To update to the latest version of Bixby on your Samsung Galaxy Note 9, launch Bixby and touch the three-dot menu button in the upper right corner. Then go to Settings > About Bixby and touch the “Update” button.

NEXT: Here’s our first look at Android Pie on the Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus