How to Disable Bixby and Remap the Side Key on a Samsung Galaxy

Bixby keeps opening when you press and hold the Side button, and you’d rather that button did something else — or nothing at all.

Why: On Galaxy phones the press-and-hold of the Side button is mapped to Bixby by default. You can’t fully uninstall Bixby, but you can remap that long-press to the power menu and sign out of Bixby so it stops appearing. The steps below use current One UI labels.

Fix 1: Remap the long-press to the Power off menu

This is the change most people actually want — hold the Side button and get the power menu instead of Bixby.

1. Open Settings → Advanced features → Side button (on some models it’s Settings → Advanced features → Side key).
2. Under Press and hold, tap Power off menu.
3. Now press and hold the Side button and the Power off / Restart menu appears instead of Bixby.

While you’re here, you can also set Double press to open the Camera or any app you like.

Fix 2: Leave Bixby so it stops launching

Remapping the button stops the hold, but Bixby can still be invoked elsewhere. Sign out to silence it.

1. Open Settings → Advanced features → Bixby.
2. Tap Leave Bixby, then tap Leave Bixby again to confirm.
3. Review the notice and tap OK, entering your Samsung account credentials if asked.

This signs you out of Bixby Voice so it no longer responds or pops up.

Fix 3: Disable the Bixby app entirely

To stop the app from running in the background, disable it from the app list.

1. Open Settings → Apps, then find and tap Bixby (you may need Sort/Filter → Show system apps).
2. Tap Storage → Clear cache, then Clear data and confirm with Delete.
3. Go back to the app’s info page and tap Disable, then Disable app to confirm.
4. Bixby will no longer launch. Use Google Assistant as your voice assistant instead.

FAQ

Can I completely uninstall Bixby? No — Bixby is a system app and can’t be removed. Disabling it (Fix 3) and remapping the Side button (Fix 1) gets you the same practical result: it never appears.

Will turning off Bixby break anything? No core features depend on it. You’ll lose Bixby voice commands and Bixby Routines may need re-enabling, but calls, camera and the rest are unaffected.

My older Galaxy has a separate Bixby key — can I remap that? Yes. Press the dedicated Bixby key to open Bixby, tap the menu, then Settings → Bixby key and choose to open an app or run a command instead.

Sources: Samsung — How to remap or turn off Bixby on your Galaxy phone, Samsung — Customize the side button on your Galaxy phone