Having a personal assistant may be impossible for many people, but with Samsung's Bixby, you have a virtual assistant that lives right inside your Android phone or tablet. To use the Bixby app, you must have a Samsung phone since it isn't available through the Play Store.
Information in this article applies to the following versions of Samsung Galaxy devices: Galaxy S8, S8+, S9, S9+, S10, S10+, S10e, Note 8, and Note 9.
What Is Bixby?
Bixby is Samsung's digital assistant. Like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google's Google Assistant, Bixby is an app on your phone\tablet that is there to make your life easier. By talking or typing to Bixby, you can open apps, take pictures, check your social media, double-check your calendar, and plenty more.
Released with the Galaxy S8 in 2017, Bixby is only available on Samsung devices running Android 7 (Nougat) and above. This means that if you're using an older Samsung phone or an older version of Android, you won't have access to it. Bixby is also available on some Samsung tablets, and it is the driving force behind the Galaxy Home smart speaker.
How to Set up Bixby
Before you can ask Bixby to look up movie times, you'll need to set it up. This should only take a few minutes. All you need to do is launch Bixby by hitting the Bixby button (the lower left button on your Galaxy phone) and then following the on-screen commands.
After you've set up Bixby the first time you'll be able to launch it using the Bixby button, or by saying "Hey Bixby".
If you don't already have one, you'll be prompted to set up a Samsung account. Altogether it shouldn't take more than five minutes, most of which is spent repeating phrases on the screen so that Bixby can learn your voice.
How to Use Bixby
Using Bixby is pretty simple: You just talk to your phone. You can set it for voice wake up if you'd like to just launch the app by saying "Hi Bixby" or you can hold down the Bixby button while speaking. You can even type to Bixby if that's more your style.
In order for Bixby to complete a command, it needs to know what app you want to use, and what you need it to do; "Open Google Maps and Navigate to Baltimore" for instance.
If Bixby doesn't understand what you are asking, or if you're asking it to use an incompatible message, the app will tell you as much. While starting out with Bixby can be frustrating due to her not properly recognizing your voice, or getting confused, the more you use your digital assistant the more capable it becomes.
How to Disable the Bixby Button
While Bixby is a handy digital assistant, you may decide that you don't want the app to launch every time you hit the button. You might not use Bixby at all opting for Google Assistant or no digital assistant at all.
You can't completely disable Bixby, but you can make it more difficult to accidentally triggering it.