You can remap Samsung's Bixby button, just not to Google Assistant or Alexa

Shortly after the Galaxy S10 series was announced, we got word from Samsung that it would allow customers to remap the Bixby button on its flagship phones. Unfortunately for those who prefer other voice assistants, it doesn’t look like Samsung blocks the button from being mapped to the Google Assistant, Alexa, or any other voice assistant.

As spotted by The Verge’s Dan Seifert on a Galaxy S10 Plus, third-party voice assistants are seemingly missing from the list of available apps when you try to remap the Bixby button.

In a follow-up tweet, Seifert confirmed that he has the standalone Google Assistant app installed from the Play Store and that it shows up in the phone’s app drawer just fine. Further testing confirms that Samsung blocks all voice assistants including Alexa and Microsoft Cortona from being remapped to the Bixby button’s single or double press.

All we can do is hope that Samsung hears people’s complaints and allows them to remap the Bixby button to any action or application that they like.

If you need a quick and dirty solution right now, XDA-Developers writes that there’s a fairly easy workaround. Using Tasker, you can create an app that does nothing but launch Google Assistant or Alexa. This solution isn’t perfect, but at least it works.