Last updated: June 8th, 2026 at 15:24 UTC+02:00
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Just pick up your phone, and voilà!
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Abhijeet Mishra / SamMobile
Despite the arrival of Gemini, Samsung has kept Bixby alive. The company even made its in-house AI assistant more capable with One UI 8.5. Currently, there are two ways to summon Bixby: you can either press and hold the power button or use a hotword. With One UI 9.0, Samsung is bringing a brand-new way to activate Bixby.
We’ve discovered that Samsung has developed a Gesture Wake-up feature for Bixby, and it is expected to arrive with One UI 9.0. When the feature is enabled, you can simply pick up your phone and bring it closer to your face to activate Bixby. Without saying “Bixby” or “Hi, Bixby,” you can immediately start talking to the assistant and issue voice commands.
Asif Iqbal Shaik / SamMobile
Gesture Wakeup for Bixby in One UI 9.0. – Source: Asif Iqbal Shaik / SamMobile
This approach is much faster than first saying the Bixby hotword and then following up with a question or command. It isn’t clear whether enabling this feature would increase power consumption, but even if it does, the impact could be negligible and a reasonable trade-off for quicker access to Bixby. However, it would only make sense if the feature works reliably.
Since this feature isn’t available in the second One UI 9.0 beta release for the Galaxy S26 series, it could arrive in a future beta update or with the stable version of One UI 9.0, which is expected to debut alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 series next month.
Asif is a computer engineer turned technology journalist. He has been using Samsung phones since 2004, and his current smartphone is the Galaxy S23 Ultra. He loves headphones, mechanical keyboards, and PC hardware. When not writing about technology, he likes watching crime and science fiction movies and TV shows.
