The Google Assistant is no doubt one useful program. It’s a voice assistant that has since grown into a powerful virtual assistant that can no more than just answer search queries. With a quick voice command, it can do simple tasks for you. It’s “smart” in many ways and is expected to become even “smarter” with all the updates and improvements. Recently, we learned it could give you a vaccine musical number. More family-centered features have been added as well.
We’re looking forward to new Google Assistant products that will be unveiled at Google I/O 2021. But right now, we’re more interested in the software updates available or yet to come. The next major change could be new triggers that will activate the Assistant.
At the moment, these triggers are used: saying “Ok Google” or “Hey Google”, swiping from the bottom corners, long-pressing the home button, squeezing the sides, and a dedicated Assistant button. New ways may be introduced in Android 12 one of which is the double-tap back gesture. The latter may not be available on all phones.
There is no announcement yet from Google but an APK teardown by XDA reveals future features and improvements. The features are still being developed and tested though so it’s possible they won’t be in the official changelog once the update is released.
As per the teardown, long-pressing the power button will trigger the Assistant. Once Android 12 is available, we may see the opion under Settings> Apps. It should also be available on Android 11.
The feature is available on some Pixel devices with Android 12 Developer Preview 3 but not without any issues. Some phones are reportedly crashing. Other possible changes to be introduced by Android include quick and easy payment authorization with Android Auto or when unlocked. There is a risk there but we believe this isn’t final yet.
