How to disable Bixby on your Samsung Galaxy phone in 2025

One feature you’re guaranteed to find on Samsung Galaxy phones is Bixby, its in-house AI assistant. Bixby isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, though, so you might have difficulty genuinely enjoying your new Galaxy handset if you aren’t a fan. Lucky for you, after following just a few quick steps, you can disable Bixby altogether on your Samsung Galaxy phone.

How to disable the Bixby button on Galaxy S25, S24, S23, S22, S21, S20, Note 10, and Note 20 phones

The Bixby button is placed right below the volume keys on the right side of Samsung’s Galaxy S25, S24, S23, S22, S21, S20, and Note 20 phones and on the left side of the Note 10 phones. It’s now known as the side button, and you can use it to activate Bixby. You may just want it to be your power button, though. Here’s how to disable Bixby altogether on that button.

How to disable the Bixby button:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go into Advanced features.
3. Select Side button.
4. Under Press and hold, select Power off menu.

That’s it! Now, you can press the side button to your heart’s content, and it won’t activate Bixby. It feels good, doesn’t it?

How to disable the Bixby button (sort of) on older Galaxy phones

If you own a Galaxy phone older than the S20 or Note 10 with Bixby installed, here’s how to require a double press to activate Bixby on those handsets. It doesn’t disable Bixby altogether, but it makes it harder to access it. It will be hard to accidentally double-press the power button. Samsung did allow users to disable Bixby on those phones at one point, but a software update has since eliminated that feature.

How to edit the side button on older Galaxy phones:

1. Open the Settings.
2. Scroll down and tap on the Advanced Features selection.
3. Tap on the Bixby key option.
4. Finally, tap on the Double Press to open Bixby selection.
5. You can also pick what a single press does.

How to disable the “Hi, Bixby” wake word

For most people, Bixby Voice is probably the most useful Bixby feature. It’s an easy way to ask your phone a simple question without first unlocking your phone. Some people aren’t big fans of Bixby Voice — Google Assistant is much more helpful in specific scenarios — and luckily, there’s an easy way to turn it off.

How to disable “Hi, Bixby”:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go into Advanced features.
3. Tap on Bixby.
4. Go into Voice registration.
5. Under Voice wake-up, select Off.

Just leave Bixby altogether!

If you really want to flip the kill switch, there is a way to leave Bixby altogether. That said, this will disable Bixby on all devices connected to your Samsung account. Samsung is quick to tell you some devices can’t be used without Bixby, and these will be initialized. With that in mind, make sure you really don’t need or use anything related to Bixby before pulling the switch on it.

How to leave Bixby:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Go into Advanced features.
3. Tap on Bixby.
4. Scroll down and select Leave Bixby.
5. Tap on Leave Bixby again.

You’ll get some time to change your mind, if you find out you can’t live without Bixby. One week, to be exact. If you want to get Bixby back, you’ll need to sign up using your Samsung account on each device.

How to disable Samsung News

It’s hard to find a good reason to use Samsung News (previously known as Samsung Gree, Bixbyn Home, or Samsung Daily). Samsung News is the vertically scrolling list of content that lives on your left-most home screen. It’s the list of content that shows you “useful” articles. The problem is most things it offers aren’t that great. If you agree with us, here’s how to eliminate it!

How to get rid of Samsung News:

1. Long-press on an empty area (somewhere with no icons or widgets) on your Galaxy phone home screen to access your home screen settings. You can also pinch inwards with two fingers to get to this screen.
2. Swipe over to the left-most home screen, where you’ll find the Samsung News section.
3. Turn Samsung News off by flipping the toggle on top of the screen Off.

To re-enable Samsung News, perform steps one and two again, then toggle the same option On.

Is Bixby bad?

Bixby isn’t necessarily bad; it just isn’t as good as other digital assistants. Despite all efforts, it has struggled to keep up with the competition.

Google Assistant is still much better at correctly finding general information and nailing questions. It is, after all, made by the company behind the most important search engine. Alexa is better at conversational language, and has much broader support from developers. Even Siri offers a better experience.

During our testing, we found that Bixby was great at controlling your device, such as turning off Wi-Fi, etc. It seems to struggle with context, though. For example, asking two related questions in a row will result in very different answers. Not only that, but the few things Bixby does well, the competition is great at. This means most of us have no valid reason to stick with Bixby, other than the fact that it comes enabled by default.

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