Remap Samsung’s Galaxy S8 Bixby Button To Google Now With This Handy Tool

Samsung really wants Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ owners to embrace its home grown Bixby digital assistant. So much, in fact, that it recently pushed out an update blocking people from remapping the Bixby button back to Google Now. That bit of software strong-arming did not sit well with some users, particularly since Bixby is not a matured AI at this point—it does not respond to voice commands, for example. Well, a frustrated developer at Reddit decided to push back with an app that gives users the ability to once again map the Bixby button to Google Now.

"I was really determined to find a new way to launch Google now when I pressed the Bixby button. So I threw together a quick app in 20 minutes to do just that. It looks for Bixby in the foreground and launches Google Now on top of it," the developer states.


After installing this app, pressing the Bixby button loads up Samsung's own AI for a split second before Google Now muscles in and shoves it aside. It is not the slickest solution, though on the bright side it can be installed by any Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ owner—there is no need to root either handset or fuss with ADB commands. Just download from Google Play and you're good to go.

Other Reddit users have made some suggestions to further improve the app. Specifically, they've asked for an option to make it launch on boot rather than having to fire it up manually. They've also requested that the notification priority be set to lowest so the icon will no longer show in the status bar.

The maker of the app said he is open to further development if there is any interest, so those requests and any others that users come up with might be implemented at a later date.

You can download the app here.