Assign other apps to the Galaxy S8's Bixby button, if you dare
An unofficial workaround makes Samsung's dedicated key more useful.
One of the Galaxy S8's standout features is Samsung's Bixby assistant. It not only organizes your schedule and talks to you, but also helps translate and identify items around you via the phone's camera. It even talks to your SmartThings-compatible home appliances, and can quickly be summoned with a dedicated physical button on the S8's left edge. But if you don't plan on using Bixby very much, that piece of hardware becomes mostly redundant. Luckily for you rebels, the internet's inventive community has found a way to assign that physical button to any app you wish.
To be clear, Samsung does not officially let you change the function of that button. The company told Engadget that it "do(es) not have any plans to support remapping the Bixby button." There aren't specific details on how this works right now, but Samsung tells us that, depending on how you press it, the key "will launch Bixby Home screen or Bixby Voice."
If that's not something you want to do with the button, you can use an tool called All In one Gestures to assign it to another app. Redditer Homeguy123 verified this method by trying it out on an S8 at his local T-Mobile outlet.
The Galaxy S8 hasn't even begun shipping yet, so we can't confirm if this DIY process causes any other glitches on the phone. Samsung told us that it has "no comment at this time on any third party activity." If you've already ordered a Galaxy S8 and know for certain you want to use this button for something else, check out the step-by-step instructions over at XDA, at your own risk.
