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Johannesburg - South Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung have finally rolled out an update to deactivate the dedicated Bixby button on new smartphones following user complaints.
On Monday Samsung rolled out an update to the Bixby app which allowed users to turn off the button or change its use.
With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8, the company included a dedicated button to activate the new personal assistant; however the button's placement is inconvenient on the device.
READ: Facebook launches digital assistant 'M' in US
The design of the S8 and recently-launched Note8, feature four buttons on the sides of the devices – power/wake-up on the right and; up/down volume and dedicated Bixby button on the left.
An issue irking users was that if the screen was in sleep mode, Bixby was accidentally activated when trying to wake up the device, given that the Bixby button is adjacent to the power button, on a device that looks the same facing up or down.
The Bixby button can be deactivated by accessing the Settings menu within the app and scrolling down to 'Bixby Key'.
Fin24 previously reported that Samsung launched its assistant Bixby with its Galaxy S8 smartphones to help the South Korean giant break into a surging market for voice-activated virtual assistants, which includes Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana.
The Bixby artificial intelligence (AI) personal assistant was designed to assist in completing tasks, talks back to the users and understands texts and voice commands through machine-learning.
Dear @SamsungMobileUS
— Casio Matt Mitchell (@thecasiokid) September 16, 2017
I hate the Bixby button. Causes me more headache than anything on any other phone I've had!#MakeItStop
I hate bixby so much. At least let us turn it off or use the button for something else. The s8 would be perfect without bixby
— Miguel Taurus (@IJoin2UploadPS4) September 16, 2017
@SamsungMobile love the phone but hate the bixby button with a passion! please release an update to allow it to be disabled
— Dave (@hogan9127uk) August 18, 2017
I wish the button was on the other side so the power and volume buttons shared the left. I've bit Bixby so many damn times I hate it
— Brian Rokosz (@bbcoachSuperman) July 19, 2017
