Bixby sucks, lmao.

 

A number of phones have recently acquired a "Google Assistant Button", which seems somehow to have received less push-back than the "Bixby Button" despite being no different to my mind (I guess the blogs like Assistant and don't like Bixby?). And some of them don't let you remap it either. I personally see no reason to discriminate between them (or Siri or the late Cortana - they're all versions of the same thing).

 

Is it an actual extra button on the navigation bar?

Assistant has been on all of my devices, via a long press on the circle (center) button.

Also, irritatingly so, via a bad connection with the headphone jack.

In fact, that one can innitiate an instant Google search, which is super annoying since I don't use Google.

 

No, like the Bixby Button it's an actual extra physical button on the side of the phone, dedicated to calling up Assistant. Nokia, Sony, Xiaomi have all added this to some of their phones, probably others too.

I hated being prompted to turn Assistant on by my Pixel if I did any of the things that would trigger it (like lingered on the home button too long) and so I disabled the Google app - now I can leave my finger on the home button as long as I like and will never be asked to activate it. Means that Assistant, Google search widgets and voice search in some Google apps won't work, but actively didn't want the first 2 and never used the third, so for me that was no loss.

 

Cause you can't turn it off easily?

 

Do you mean Bixby or Dex?

Bixby is Samsung's version of Assistant/Siri/Cortana, Dex is the desktop-like mode for some Samsung devices.

 

Dex I could see the use of, but only with a separate keyboard.

 

So why not just change what the assistant function is?

In fact, you can even select 'none' as a function.