The Galaxy Note 10 doesn't have a hardware button for Bixby, Samsung's AI smart assistant. The reveal came during the Samsung Unpacked event on Wednesday. Bixby debuted on the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in 2017 and was an attempt to answer Apple's Siri on the iPhone, the Google Assistant is on pretty much any Android phone and Amazon'sAlexa. Fine, but the biggest issue with Bixby has to do with the placement of a dedicated hardware button that triggered the assistant. Frequently when grabbing a Galaxy phone, it was easy to accidentally press the Bixby key and activate the assistant when you didn't want to.
Samsung also did away with the headphone jack on the new Note and there will no doubt be people mourning its loss. However, news that the Note 10 will lack the Bixby Key might actually spur figurative celebrations and parties. Remember, it wasn't until earlier this year that Samsung officially allowed people to remap the Bixby button to trigger another task or change Bixby's activation from a single press to a double one. These compromises made the "accidental press" go away, but the physical button now seemed to lack a purpose.
