Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Samsung has quietly expanded a feature that lets you set a custom wake-up phrase for its Bixby voice assistant.
- Back in February 2023, Samsung announced that Galaxy S23 users in Korea would be able to customize the wake-up phrase, but the company didn’t follow up to say when this feature would roll out globally.
- We noticed that this feature is available out of the box on the Galaxy S25 and that it also recently became available on other Samsung phones.
When Samsung launched the Galaxy S25 series late last month, there was nary a peep about its Bixby voice assistant. This is because Samsung decided to put Google’s Gemini voice assistant front and center on the Galaxy S25. While Samsung is highlighting Gemini on the S25, Bixby fans will be glad to know it hasn’t been abandoned. In fact, Bixby offers a feature even Gemini lacks: the ability to set a custom wake-up phrase.
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A wake-up phrase is a word or set of words used to activate a voice assistant. Most voice assistants have one or two fixed wake-up phrases that you can use. For Gemini, it’s “Hey Google” or “Okay Google,” whereas for Bixby, it’s “Bixby” or “Hi Bixby.” Smartphone makers typically don’t let you create your own wake-up phrases because custom phrases may be less reliable than the pre-set options.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to create your own wake-up phrase; in fact, some silicon vendors like Qualcomm actually provide software to create your own wake-up phrases, but this software is never shipped on end-user devices. Thankfully, Samsung has now made this feature available for Bixby.
Samsung announced in February 2023 that Bixby would gain personalized wake-up phrases, initially only in Korea, with no timeline given for global expansion. We found this feature pre-installed on our US Galaxy S25 Ultra review unit, and it appears to be available on older Samsung devices as well. We’re not sure exactly when it rolled out to other regions, but judging by reports online, it may have happened sometime in the last few weeks.
To access this feature, navigate to Settings > Advanced features > Bixby > Labs on your Samsung phone. There, you’ll find a create wake-up phrase toggle. After toggling this, you can go to Settings > Advanced features > Bixby > Voice registration and tap Create wake-up phrase under the voice wake-up section to train your own wake-up phrase.
You can utter almost any wake-up phrase, with the exception of “Google,” “Alexa,” and “Siri.” Samsung recommends uttering a phrase between two and four syllables and to avoid having earphones or Bluetooth devices connected while recording.
Once you’ve created a custom wake-up phrase, you can use it at any time to activate Bixby. This works even when the screen is off, just like the default “Hi, Bixby” and “Bixby” phrases. If you experience detection issues, you can adjust the wake-up sensitivity or re-record your voice to improve accuracy. You can also toggle “wake up when media is playing” if you want to have Bixby listen for your voice even when videos or music is playing. Finally, you can delete all voice recordings by tapping “delete all voice recordings” at the bottom of the page.
While the custom wake-up phrase is a welcome addition, it may not be enough to make people reconsider Bixby. Although Bixby excels at device control, particularly through One UI Routines, it lags behind Gemini in general knowledge and question-answering. We were hoping to see Samsung’s next-generation Bixby on the Galaxy S25, but unfortunately, that more advanced version remains limited to China.
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