14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ come with a dedicated button for the company’s new voice assistant Bixby, and some users have recently found that the functionality of this particular physical button can be remapped.
Using an application from the Google Play Store named “All in One Gestures” users can reconfigure the Bixby button to work with other applications. Apparently, Samsung isn’t pleased with this option and has recently issued an OTA update to prevent users from remapping the Bixby button.
A report revealed that the update was issued only to Galaxy S8 smartphones purchased from mobile carrier Telus in Canada. Others who bought their phones in the United States are still able to remap their smartphones.
Samsung says it’s an “exploit”
A Samsung representative from the US confirmed that the update indeed removed the ability to remap the Bixby button and said that the previous method exploited a system-level behavior, adding that Samsung wouldn’t officially support it.
XDA Developers disagrees with Samsung and says that many apps are built around enabling Accessibility Services and remapping the Bixby button isn't an exploit method.
Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ users can still remap the Bixby button, but they would need to root their phones in order to do so, which automatically voids their warranty.
Since the OTA update was sent out recently in Canada and a Samsung representative from the US confirmed it, it should arrive to units in other countries as well.
Through this move, Samsung wants to make sure that Bixby is being used by a large number of Galaxy S8 owners, thus increasing the voice assistant’s popularity. But instead of forcing people to use Bixby, perhaps the smartphone maker should make sure that it gives full functionality to the service before releasing it. The central voice command feature doesn’t work in the US at launch, while other languages, aside from English and Korean, will arrive at the end of this year.