Users are already remapping the Bixby button on the not-yet-launched Galaxy S8

Why it matters to you

Planning on buying a Galaxy S8, but you’d prefer to use Google Assistant instead of Bixby? For now, it seems you can do just that.

Well, that was fast. People are already remapping the Samsung Galaxy S8’s Bixby button to whatever they like — and evidently, all it takes is a simple app install.

The answer to the question everyone has been asking comes to us by way of Homeguy123 on Reddit, who appears to have sidestepped Samsung’s new virtual assistant despite being under the watchful eye of a Best Buy representative. In the short video, the user presses the Bixby button to launch Google Search — though it could theoretically call up any app or command, including Google Assistant.

More: Bixby sees unofficial port to Galaxy S7 and other Samsung Nougat devices

The app that makes all of this possible is known as All in One Gestures, and based on the promotional images featuring what looks to be an original HTC One, it’s actually been kicking around the Google Play Store for quite a while. After enabling all the necessary permissions, including the app’s accessibility service, you can add the button as a custom key and free it from Bixby’s chains. XDA Developers goes into greater detail on its blog if you’d like to try it yourself, but it really is a shockingly simple process that many assumed would take time and ingenuity on the part of developers, rather than a years-old app.

It should also be somewhat unnerving news for Samsung, considering everything the company has staked on its new virtual assistant. Back in March, Injong Rhee, Samsung Mobile’s head of research and development, told us at the company’s Suwon, South Korea, headquarters that he believes all devices that support Bixby should feature a dedicated key, and that phones are merely its first destination.

Samsung envisions a network of smart devices unified through Bixby. But that confidence is largely dependent on users adopting and becoming familiar with its assistant, the same way they have with Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa. Being able to avoid it this easily hinders the realization of that goal, and it wouldn’t be surprising if Samsung found a way to patch this loophole down the road.