Samsung's Bixby voice assistant gets a lot of hate, some of which is fair, but it's not as useless as some people may think. The "BIXBY ROUTINES" feature on Galaxy phones is surprisingly good. You should use it.
Most people think of Bixby's version as Samsung's version of Google Assistant or Siri. That annoying thing that opens when you press the power button on a new Samsung Galaxy phone. For some reason, Samsung also tossed the name aside for a feature that really has nothing to do with voice assistants. That's what we're talking about here.
BIXBY routines are simple "If This", then "," Macros that can automate things on your Galaxy device. Select actions to be a "trigger" and then decide what actions occur when the trigger occurs. It's similar to Google Assistant routines, but a bit more device-oriented.
Here are some examples of a simple BIXBY routine you could create:
You can see the concept is quite simple, but the results can be very powerful. There are many different things you can use for triggers and resulting actions. Samsung also has a list of suggested routines that you can play around with.
To get started with BIXBY routines, swipe down once from the top of the screen and tap the gear icon.
Scroll down to the "Advanced Features" section.
Toggle on "BIXBY ROUTINES" and then tap on the title.
There are three tabs at the bottom:"Discover", "Add Routine" and "My Routines". The "Discover" tab has some pre-made routines that you can use.
To make your own routine, go to the "Add routine" tab. First, tap the PLUS icon for the "IF" section.
Look through the list of triggers and find the one you want to use. You will be guided through the setup. You can have multiple triggers.
After the "IF" has been decided, tap the PLUS icon for the "Then" section.
Find the action you want to happen with the triggers. You will be guided through setting them up. You can have multiple "then" actions as well.
Finally, you can "revert the actions" when the routine ends. For example, if you turn Wi-Fi off when you leave home, it would turn it back on when you arrive.
Now select "Next".
Give the routine a name and select a color and icon for it. Tap "Done" when you're done.
That's all about it. BIXBY routines can be as simple or as complex as you like. It's a bit strange that Samsung would attach a unfavorable name to a genuinely cool and helpful feature. Give me a chance.
