How to disable Bixby on your Samsung A52

Bixby is Samsung’s virtual assistant that studies users’ searches and selects results that suit their tastes. Opinions on Bixby are mixed. Some users use it incessantly, while others simply do not use it.
Originally created as Samsung’s assistant, it has not been as successful as Google Assistant and Siri for Google and Apple. Bixby was created to connect different Samsung devices and as a result be able to work on different platforms. It is activated by a special button that can be found on smartphones and guarantees that the assistant is always ready to handle any of the users’ needs. It does, however, have weaknesses, i.e. if you don’t have a Galaxy smartphone Bixby is not the assistant for you. If you are on a newer Samsung Galaxy and end up with Samsung’s customised virtual assistant there is good news, it is finally easy to get rid of it completely. Here are some tips that can be done in just a few steps thanks to Syrus’ guide.

Disabling Bixby from the side button

Newer Samsung phones open Bixby via the side button, which is the button you use to switch the phone off or on. You have the possibility to change this setting. On the home screen of your phone, scroll down to expand the quick settings. You will now see a power icon in the top right-hand corner, select the side button settings. You will then be able to choose the options you prefer for the button that activates Bixby, including power off mode.

Disabling “Hey Bixby”

First of all, keep in mind that Bixby will not work if you are not logged into your Samsung account, so if you are not using other Samsung-specific features, you can easily log out in the Manage Account section in your phone’s settings. If you are signed in to your Samsung account, however, the Bixby Voice option will be active. While Google’s and Apple’s assistants are activated with “Hey Google” and “Hey Siri” respectively, the phrase “Hey Bixby” is quite unlikely to be pronounced and therefore unlikely to be activated as easily as other assistants. You can still disable the option by following our steps. Start by opening the Bixby app, select the side menu, now tap on the settings icon and deactivate the voice activation setting. Finally, the experience with your Samsung Galaxy device will continue without the company’s digital assistant.

Privacy and security of voice assistants

Voice assistants are becoming increasingly popular, making your home smarter and facilitating many tasks. Yet, their use raises questions about the protection of recorded material and possible vulnerabilities in terms of privacy and cybersecurity. A voice assistant is an intelligent object, enabled by software that by means of machine learning and deep learning mechanisms recognises natural language and uses self-learning to improve and become more and more accurate in listening, understanding and responding.
To achieve this, both the technological and human components are needed. All our interactions with devices and services are stored, so machine learning has the ability to process data and improve its capability more and more. This factor, however, creates the problem of storing data securely so that it cannot be shared by those who are not entitled to it. In addition, human input is crucial today, here an additional privacy concern may arise. Indeed, in order to improve the accuracy of voice recognition systems, it is necessary to allow teams of thousands of people worldwide to listen to and analyse voice recordings inside homes or offices, without official access to their identities. For this, here are some tips:

• Be careful which accounts you connect to your voice assistant
• Delete sensitive recordings regularly
• If you are not using the voice assistant, mute it
• Whenever possible, use two-factor authentication
• Disable all services you are not using
• Avoid saving passwords on non-secure sites